The Universe Core
by Goldenrod
Summary: Kit catches up to the Toa Nuva and joins the high-staked battle in the center of the Matoran universe.
1. Lies Revealed

Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle (if I did, the movies wouldn't have gotten cancelled just when it was getting interesting).

Author's Note: I'm baaaack. Betchya some of you wondered if I died or something ;D. A lot of things happened over the last year or so: 1) I've been a bad writer and not writing any chance I get; 2) There are other stories I'm working on . . . but there's only one of me; and 3) I've been back in school lately and all of my classes are English classes, which equals a lot of writing assignments. Anyways, sorry about the long wait.

* * *

At the shores of Ga-Metru, Kit absently tossed rocks into the waves of the Silver Sea that crashed against the cliff on which she sat. If one saw her now, they'd say she looked like a lost soul. Tears no longer flowed from her eyes, but her expression was one of angst. The memorial ceremony for Matoro had ended about two hours ago, and frankly, she didn't know where to go from there. Turaga Dume at first insisted that she help out repairing the city wherever and however she could, but, upon seeing the empty look in her eyes, Vakama and the other Mata Nui Turaga talked their fellow elder into leaving her alone for a little while longer. True, they couldn't just dwell on their grief over the Toa Mahri of Ice's death when there was still some work to do, but Vakama and the others understood their human friend: she just wanted to be left alone for a while and needed some time to get things sorted out in her head. Memories of Matoro played in her mind like short movies, both from when he was a Matoran as well as a Toa. She and Matoro were never what she might call friends, more like acquaintances. She snorted to herself; why was it that you never appreciated someone until they were gone? Why did it always have to be that way? "Kit?" a voice called.

She turned to find Kongu approaching her. "What are you doing here?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. After their ventures at Mahri Nui, she figured the Toa Mahri of Air would be staying as far away from water as he possibly could for a long, long while.

"I was heading back to Le-Metru when I decided-thought I'd visit-stop to see how you were doing."

Kit smiled, "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, Kongu, but please, don't baby me. I'm not _that_ far gone."

"Fair enough," said the Air Toa with his hands up. "Mind if I join you?"

"Join the crowd," Kit shrugged.

Kongu took a seat right next to her and they both stared out in the distance for a few moments in silence. "You going to be alright-ok?" he finally asked the burning question.

"I think so," Kit replied. "It's just going to take some time."

Kongu nodded in understanding.

"I tried meditating earlier, like Gali taught me, but . . . I guess I'm still too emotional to concentrate," Kit continued. "The funny thing is, it's not just about missing him. It's . . . it's like a part me feels like I should've seen it coming, that I could've done something."

Afraid of where this was going, Kongu placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Kit, I understand the urge-need to find someone or something to blame these things on, but, in this instance-case, it's nobody's fault. Not mine, not Matoro's, and most certain-definitely not yours. In fact, from what I was informed-told, it's thanks to you that he was able to fulfill his role."

"Some role," Kit mumbled.

"Would you prefer-rather the Piraka, the Barraki, or even Mirna got their way?" asked Kongu. When the girl didn't respond, he continued, "Now, not to confess-say that I'm happy-cheerful about all of this, but perhaps-maybe this is how things were meant to turn out according to the story in your realm-world; therefore, you're still doing your duty-job."

Kit was about to ask what kind of duty allowed your friends, your comrades, to die, when she heard a familiar voice in her mind—Tehreisha. Seeing the girl start, Kongu gazed at her questioningly, "Kit?"

Kit placed her finger to her lips, "Give me a minute. Tehreisha's calling me telepathically." Concentrating, Kit replied. _"What is it, Tehreisha?"_

"_I'm very sorry about what you're going through, Kit, but you're needed elsewhere at the moment. I have a feeling that the Toa Nuva are going to need you."_

"_Aren't they on their way back to Metru Nui?"_

"_I'm afraid not, child. They're in a location called Karda Nui, a place that is known as the Universe Core."_

"_The 'World that Feeds the World'? What are they doing there? Tahu said he and the others would be meeting us back here."_

"_You'll find out when you get there. You must hurry now, Kit. I'll take you there."_

"_But what about the Toa, Turaga, and Matoran here?"_

"_They'll be safe for the time being."_

"_Do I have to go now? A friend of mine just died, you know."_

"_I know and I am sorry for your loss, Kit, but I'm afraid this can't wait."_

Kit mentally sighed, conceding, and got to her feet, to Kongu's surprise. "What's up?" asked the Air Toa.

"I have to go," the girl said with a reluctant tone. "Duty calls."

"So soon after Matoro-brother's memorial service?"

"Believe me, Kongu, if I had my way I'd stay for at least a little longer, if just to get this grief out of my system; but Tehreisha says the Toa Nuva might need me."

"The Toa Nuva? Are they having problem-trouble getting home?"

"No," Kit snorted distastefully, "they're somewhere called Karda Nui."

Kongu's eyes widened in shock, "You mean . . ."

Kit nodded with narrowing eyes, "Tahu lied to us about where they were going."

"Why?"

"That's what I intend to find out."

At that moment, the same swirling blue lights that transported Kit to Voya Nui appeared in the sky. "Take care, Kit," said Kongu as he stood up and extended his fist, "and please, try not to be too harsh-hard on Tahu. I'm certain-sure he had his reasons." Kit still felt betrayed, but returned the Toa Mahri of Air's salute. The lights then surrounded her and in a flash, she was gone. Kongu, meanwhile, shook his head, not sure of whom he was more worried about, Kit or Toa Tahu.

* * *

When Kit materialized inside a tunnel, the first thing she noticed was the sound of battle. She ran to find out what was going on—and almost ran off the edge of the path. After breathing a sigh of relief, she gazed at the sight before her, only to have her breath taken away. It was a battle unlike anything she'd ever witnessed; the Toa Nuva, with new armor, fighting in the sky with large humanoid bat-like creatures. What she found a bit odd about the bat-things was that dark colored and seemingly disfigured Matoran were riding on them. What was with that? She didn't have time to wonder about it, though, for at that moment one of the strange Matoran spotted her and fired a dark beam of shadow energy from its hand. Kit leaped to the side to dodge it. She looked back up at the Matoran and broke into a run when it fired another blast of shadow energy. 'What in the world is going on here?' she thought to herself. 'I thought the Matoran were the good guys. Oh, sure, there was Ahkmou, but I thought he was just a bad egg--' Her train of thought was interrupted when a blast hit her back and she fell to the ground. She gasped for breath not only from the running, but from how suddenly cold she felt. Even though it was temporary, Kit felt like the darkness sucked out some of her body heat. She turned onto her back and found a handful of claws—claws that belonged to her Matoran attacker, a Ga-Matoran—aimed right at her. Believing that the Matoran must be acting out of fear, Kit raised her hands to show that she meant no harm. "Easy, I'm not here to cause trouble," she said in a calm, if breathless, voice.

The Matoran's expression changed into one Kit immediately didn't like—that of a hunter whose prey is cornered. "Oh, good," said the Ga-Matoran, "because we've already got enough of that around here." Kit saw the shadow energy being gathered in the Matoran's palm and, before she could do anything, a beam of light struck her assailant. The Matoran was blasted back, and Kit looked behind to find a Ko-Matoran calling to her.

"What are you waiting for? Naming Day? Run!"

Scrambling to her feet, Kit ran with the Matoran. It was then that she realized that the Matoran was a little taller than the Matoran she was used to. A blast from behind alerted the two that the Ga-Matoran from earlier was pursuing them. The Ko-Matoran fired a few more shots of light—to Kit's surprise—but they missed. The winged Ga-Matoran was almost on top of them when Kit decided to intervene. Reaching back, she released an energy ball. The ball struck home and the Matoran fell a little, stunned. "Back here!" said the Ko-Matoran as he grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her into a narrow alcove. Kit was about to say something, but the Matoran motioned for her to be quiet. Soon, she saw why—the Matoran from earlier was coming. Girl and Matoran remained as perfectly still as possible, barely daring to breathe. Outside, the Ga-Matoran looked around with a furious look on her face, guessed where the two went, and left.

Kit and the Ko-Matoran waited a few minutes before he dared to take a peek. "Is she gone yet?" Kit whispered.

"Yeah," the Matoran nodded, and they came out.

"What's going on?" asked Kit as she gazed out at the fighting that was still going on. "Why did that Ga-Matoran attack me?"

"A war's what's going on," the Matoran answered, "and, for the record, Gavla's an Av-Matoran. Or, at least she was." Seeing that the term meant nothing to the girl, the Matoran explained. "We Av-Matoran, or Matoran of Light, have limited powers over light; we mostly use it to change how others perceive our coloring. For instance, I'm really gold and yellow, but my powers are making me look like a Ko-Matoran. Name's Solek, by the way."

"Mine's Kit, and thanks for the save back there," said the girl. Just then, her crystal began to glow and floated out from her shirt. Its beams shot out and located each of the Toa Nuva. 'What now?' Kit wondered. 'I've already got a Nuva suit.' As if in response, when the crystal was finished, ribbons of goldish-yellow enveloped her form and revealed her Nuva suit. Except, there was a very different change—it was morphing. When it was complete, she had a new suit, except the eye scope was on her left eye and she had green arm-mounted rockets.

"What the--" Solek gawked.

"Time to take care of business," Kit said with a smile, and took off.

Pohatu was having trouble with the red and black bat-creature due to not having experience at fighting in midair. Antroz, on the other hand, was about to seize his chance at downing the Toa of Stone permanently, when a voice shouted, "Hey, you!" The next thing he saw through his mental-link with his Matoran rider was a multi-colored figure zooming right at him with a glowing outstretched fist. Kit's punch met its mark, sending the Makuta into a stalactite and his Matoran rider flying.

"Kit!" Lewa, who had a Matoran passenger on his back, called as he came closer. "Welcome back to the group-fold."

"Thanks," the girl winked.

"By the way," said the Matoran, a Le-Matoran by appearance though Kit remembered Solek from earlier, to Lewa, "Who are you, anyway? You look like something Solek would dream up."

Getting the villager's attention, Kit peered down at him and said in a warning tone, "Watch it, shorty."

"Take it easy, kiddo," said the Air Toa as he patted the girl's shoulder. "Anyway, to answer your question, I'm a Toa-hero, here to save you from . . . whatever you need saving from. And, what's a Solek?"

Seemingly as soon as Kit found herself in Karda Nui, the battle was over. Though, after thinking about it, she figured that the humanoid bat-things were not beaten, just retreating to get their bearings. Apparently, they weren't expecting to deal with her and the Toa Nuva. She was watching them and the Matoran disappear into the mists of the vast cavern when Tahu called to her. "Kit, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," the girl replied with a slightly rough tone as she placed her hands on her hips. Behind the Toa of Fire, Gali shook her head; she could tell that the girl somehow found out about Tahu's lie. The group touched ground in the last free village of Matoran, after which Kit said, "I think it's only fair to say that you, Toa Tahu, have got some explaining to do."

The Fire Toa looked to his teammates, who reluctantly nodded, and sighed. "We didn't really have a choice, Kit. Shortly before we met up with you, Jaller, and the others on the beach at Voya Nui, we spoke with Axxon and a being called Botar. They told us of a set of instructions located in the Great Temple in Metru-Nui, a list of tasks that had to be done before the Great Spirit can be awakened. We wanted to tell you guys—we really did—but we knew you'd all insist on coming with us."

"We couldn't allow you to accompany us for the Mask of Life had to be retrieved, else the tasks we've had to carry out over the past few days would've been in vain," Gali interjected.

"And what did the Turaga have to say about it?" Kit asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, um . . .," Pohatu said, nervously scratching the back of his head, "see . . . they don't really know about it."

When the girl gave them a baffled look, Kopaka elaborated. "We didn't talk with anyone at Metru-Nui, not even to the Turaga, about the document; we couldn't without explaining how we knew about it. Also, some of the tasks were a bit . . . touchy, to say the least, thus we would've lost precious time in an argument that would've accomplished nothing."

"So, you guys just went into the Temple and took an artifact without permission," Kit guessed, to which the Toa nodded an affirmative.

"Kit," Tahu continued, "we're not offering an excuse for the lie we told you, we're asking you to understand. Where we had to go, what we had to do, you nor the Toa Inika couldn't follow or be involved. And, as Gali said, you had your own mission to fulfill."

"You're right, it isn't an excuse for lying," Kit said, anger building up in her voice. "Heck, who knows, maybe if you had at least come with us, Matoro wouldn't have had to die just so we could be having this conversation." The Toa Nuva gawked at their young human frowned, puzzled. "Haven't heard, have you?" Kit asked sarcastically.

"Heard what?" asked Onua, and Kit told them all about Mata Nui's brief death and how Matoro sacrificed himself in order to bring him back to life.

The Toa could scarcely believe it; they had felt the Great Spirit both die and return to life, but never knew how it came to be. Kit, meanwhile, feeling tears of grief and anger stinging her eyes, turned her back at the group. Lewa stepped forward to put a hand on the girl's shoulder, but Kopaka halted him, his eyes telling the Air Toa to give her her space. "Kit, please believe me when I say words can never express how very sorry we are about Matoro, and, though you do have every right to be mad at us, please try to understand," Gali pleaded. The Toa Nuva waited in tense silence for their compatriot's verdict. On her end, Kit willed herself not to cry as she wrestled with the two reasoning sides of her brain. One side still felt betrayed by the cold, hard fact that her friends—people she thought she could trust with her very life—had lied to her. The other side, however, reasoned that not only, as Tahu mentioned, did the Toa Nuva have other things to take care of, but even if they were with her and the others at the Pit, Matoro would've died anyway—he had to, being the carrier of the Kanohi Ignika and all. No matter how much it pained her, she'd known deep in her heart ever since Kongu brought it up that the Toa Mahri of Ice had done what he was meant to do.

'Doesn't mean I have to like it,' Kit said in her mind. Finally, she turned back to face the Toa. "If need be, we can discuss this later," she said, calming down a bit. "Right now, it looks to me like we've got more important things to worry about."

Kopaka nodded in agreement. "A lot to talk about, little time to plan, and too many questions. Let's hope the Matoran here have some answers."

"Right, way too many," said Lewa, and he began counting with his fingers. "What happened to our armor, masks, and weapons? What does the Brotherhood of Makuta want with this place? Who are all of these Matoran and why are they here? And, where is here?"

"I think I can shed some light on at least one of your questions," said Kit. "One of them, I think he said his name was Solek, told me when I got here that all of the Matoran here are Av-Matoran, or Matoran of Light. Unlike the Matoran we know, they have limited abilities over their respective element, which they use to bend light, disguising themselves. For instance, Lewa, your new friend who was riding on your back during the fight might _look_ green, thus might _appear_ to be a Le-Matoran, but he's really gold and white colored. He's just using his powers to manipulate how light reflects off his body, thus changing his colors."

Meanwhile, Pohatu gazed at the surrounding environment. Something about this place seemed awfully familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, to quote his human friend. Then, almost instantly, it hit him, "Wait, wait."

"What's wrong?" asked Kit.

"It's different now, very different, but . . . don't you recognize it?" Seeing his teammates blank expressions, he said, "Guys . . . we've come home."

* * *

Meanwhile, at their secret lair, while Chirox was venting his frustration at their current situation, Antroz was thinking. From what he saw through his mental connection with the Matoran, Radiak, the Toa he and the others fought outside were the Toa Nuva they were warned about—Toa he thought they wouldn't have to worry about until all of Karda Nui was in the Brotherhood's grasp. Of course, that was the thing with Makuta Teridax—he never told the whole story. Also, there was that multi-colored being he encountered during the battle. It had proven to be a very formidable opponent—he had the nasty dent in his armor to prove it—and there was something familiar about it. Suddenly, the realization hit him so hard his head nearly spun. The stranger's description matched that of something Teridax called a human. According to Teridax, the human was female, supposedly comes from another realm, and answers to the name of Kit. It was then that Antroz knew that their mission just went from difficult to worse.


	2. Sky and Swamp

Back at the village, Kit and the Toa Nuva followed the green Av-Matoran from earlier, Tanma, to a shelter where the remaining free Matoran congregated. _'We've come home,' _Pohatu's words kept playing over and over in their minds like a broken record as they walked. This was where the Toa Nuva came from? Karda Nui was their home?

As surprising as she found it, Kit, judging from the looks on their faces, figured that for the Toa, it was downright shocking. 'Probably difficult not to be if you realized you once lived somewhere and didn't remember,' she thought to herself. She had to admit that, in a way, the situation the Toa were now in kind of reminded her of her temporary amnesia.

"I know our minds were shatter-scattered when we got to the island of Mata Nui, but this is ridiculous," said Lewa.

The recollection continued with Kopaka remembering his earliest memory of training on somewhere called Daxia, then being sent here to protect the Matoran from something, but he couldn't remember what. Tahu recalled that what the Matoran needed protection from were Rahi that were being affected by energy spikes and the beasts had to be contained. "Right," Pohatu nodded. "Then the Matoran left, and we . . . we . . . What did we do?" Unfortunately, the nostalgia ended there; none of the other Toa had any clue of what happened after the Matoran left.

'Boy, whatever messed with their memories must've been just as effective as those energy spikes in the time warp,' Kit said to herself.

Then Lewa remembered the name of a Matoran, Kirop. "Is he here?"

"Yes," Tanma answered with a tired and harsh voice. "In fact, you fought him out there five minutes ago. Could we maybe stop with the happy memories and concentrate on _now_?"

"Well, excuuuse us," said Kit, placing her hands on her hips.

"One more question, if you please," Onua spoke up. "What happened to this place? It's not how I remember it."

But, Tanma said, "Later. The battle's not over, just interrupted."

"He's got a point," Kit nodded.

"Well, not only do we have Kit here, but we also should be able to help with these," said Pohatu as he hefted a large, shoulder-mounted weapon that just seemed to appear when his armor transformed upon arrival to Karda Nui.

As he examined it, his finger accidentally pressed a trigger of some sort, causing it to fire a ball of light and Kit to yelp and leap aside in surprise. The sphere left a neat, smoking hole in the wall where it went through. "Hey, Pohatu, watch where you aim that thing, huh!" Kit shrieked.

"Sorry," the Toa of Stone apologized sheepishly, then turned his attention back to his new weapon. "So, that's what does."

"Good, we'll need weapons like that," said Tanma. "We have to be ready when they come back."

"Who?" asked Tahu, though he feared he already knew.

"I'd think you'd know, if you're the Toa that Solek says you are," replied a Po-Matoran colored Matoran named Photok. "Those are Makuta out there trying to kill us all, with a little help from our friends."

"Oh, boy," Kit said quietly with a little anxiety; it just seemed like things kept getting better and better.

However, the shocks didn't end there. It was then that Tanma told the Toa about the falling, white figure he saw earlier in the waterfall that was carrying a strange, glowing mask. Kit, knowing what—or rather _who_—he had to be talking about, walked into a corner, eyes on the ground and wishing she could turn off her hearing for just a little bit. Tanma noticed. "What's with her?" he quietly asked.

"She already knows," whispered Lewa. Tanma, understanding, spoke in a softer tone so Kit wouldn't have to hear.

However, though a majority of her didn't want to hear about Matoro's last moments, a small side, against her will, was roused with curiosity when the Matoran leader said something about an explosion of light—thus was why her ears, seemingly on their own, perked up. When he was finished, the Toa looked at their human friend, then at each other. After a shared leaden silence, Kopaka suddenly remembered something Kit mentioned earlier. Turning to Tanma, he asked, "The mask this Toa was carrying, where is it? What happened to it?"

"I don't know," the Av-Matoran shrugged. "If it was caught in that explosion, it was probably destroyed."

Understanding what the Toa of Ice was thinking, Kit turned around and asked, "Say it wasn't, where would it be now?"

"In the swamp," Photok replied. "That's all that's down below."

"The Mask of Life! It has to be!" Tahu exclaimed. "We need to find that mask before the Makuta do . . . if they haven't already."

"Or, anyone else, for that matter," Kit pointed out, thinking of Mirna. Kopaka agreed, but also stated that the Av-Matoran still needed protection. "Which means we've got no choice," said Kit. "We'll have to split up: some of us are going to have to go down to this swamp to find the Kanohi Ignika while the rest stay here and defend the villagers."

"I'll remain-stay here, since I'm the only Toa-hero good at wind-flying," Lewa volunteered. "Kopaka, I believe-think you should jump-dive into the swamp."

"Why?"

"'Cause I ever-always end up on your group-team, and you're not exactly a Matoran barrel of laughs."

Everyone turned to find Kit covering her mouth, trying to muffle her giggles. Kopaka, meanwhile, rolled his eyes.

Soon after, the sides were chosen. Kopaka, Lewa, Pohatu, and Kit would remain to fight the Makuta in the sky. Gali, Tahu, and Onua would go down to the swamp below to search for the Mask of Life. Before departing, Photok and Tanma told the swamp group what they knew of the swamp—which, unfortunately, wasn't very much. After their debriefing, the two teams exchanged silent farewells and salutes.

"What do you think they'll find down there?" Kit asked Kopaka.

"Their destiny," answered the Toa Nuva of Ice. "And, quite possibly, ours."

* * *

Hours went by and things were quite quiet at the Av-Matoran's last stronghold. 'A little too quiet,' Kit thought as she walked along a path along the side of a stalactite. She had learned from experience that, usually, extra long reprieves such as this were only the calm before the storm. The Makuta were no doubt going to strike again; it was just a matter of time and opportunity. Once she reached the village, she spotted Solek and walked up to him. "Anything?" she asked.

"Nothing. A lot of shadow Matoran have been spotted flying around nearby, but otherwise, they're not posing much of a threat yet. I have to admit, though, I wish they would either leave or make a move already."

"I know what you mean, Solek. To tell you the truth, I'd welcome an attack right now. Anything to make me feel less edgy."

The Matoran smiled; Kit's human antics never ceased to amaze him. Just a few hours ago, he was excitedly asking Kit questions about her species and homeworld, reminding the girl a lot of Takanuva when he was Takua, as Kopaka mentioned he would. Suddenly, the alarm went off—the Makuta and shadow Matoran were back. In a flash, Kit summoned her new Nuva suit and joined the Toa in the sky. Once they split up, Kit flew around her opponents in such an erratic fashion, they could barely keep up with her. "Hold still, you--" said Chirox as he, through his mental connection with Kirop, tried to take aim at the girl.

Kit, however, whooped as she spun around and flipped over him. She flew up and, before Makuta or Matoran could react, she flip-kicked Chirox hard. The Makuta fell from the force of the blow while his Matoran rider got dislodged from his back. "I love these babies!" Kit exalted as she glanced at her rockets. A moment later, she realized she celebrated too soon. A shot that seemed to come from nowhere struck her, knocking her out like a light, and she was now in the same predicament as Chirox. Even worse, no one saw what happened.

* * *

Meanwhile, down below in the swamp, Tahu, Gali, and Onua were dealing with three other Makuta: Krika, Gorast, and Bitil—and not doing so hot. Onua had a badly weakened Gali in his arms due to her encounter with Gorast, who nearly drained her of her light, and Tahu, also weakened from nearly having his life energy sucked out of him, courtesy of Krika, was using every bit of willpower he had left to keep his shield up. "My shield will take a few blasts, and then . . ." the Toa of Fire said before something in the sky caught his eye—or rather some_things_. It was Chirox, trying in vain to regain control of his flight, and, to the Toa's horror, Kit, who was just falling limply through the mists. While Bitil and Gorast moved to aid their comrade, Krika left to intercept the girl; he was curious about what sort of creature this was. However, he never made it due to being blasted out of the sky.

Onua then zoomed past, caught the girl, and landed next to Tahu and Gali. It was then that Kit woke up. "What happened?" she groaned, rubbing her head.

"I'd guess you got, as I believe you call them, the living daylights knocked out of you," replied Onua as he helped steady her.

Kit noticed the three humanoid insect-like figures. While two of them looked like beetles, the other looked like a mantis. "Anybody got any idea what those things are?" she asked with a little disgust in her voice.

"Makuta," Tahu simply answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Kit looked at the Toa, then back at the insects, "You have got to be kidding." Tahu, however, shook his head.

With the three Makuta busy with Chirox, Kit and the Toa had the opportunity to escape. The question, however, was where? Chances were, with Tahu and Gali both weak from their earlier encounters with two of the Makuta and Kit not strong enough to help carry even one of them, they wouldn't get very far. Suddenly, a voice off to the left called to them. "This way. Come this way, now." Peering into the swampy foliage, Kit spotted who it was.

"Onua, it's an Av-Matoran."

"Follow me, I can take you to safety," the Matoran beckoned them.

"What do you think?" Kit asked, turning to the Earth and Fire Toa.

"There's the chance that it could be a trap," Onua answered, "but, as I see it, we don't really have much of a choice."

"Agreed," Tahu nodded. "Let's go."

The Matoran then led them deeper into the swamp until they came to a clearing lined with lightvines, the only protection against the Makuta, for the plants produced light, which the Makuta, of course, didn't like. Upon entering the clearing though, Kit and the three Toa found themselves unable to believe what they were seeing. All around were at least a dozen Matoran that seemed to be in the middle of some kind of transformation. When Onua moved to help one of the villagers, their Matoran guide blocked him. "Don't interfere."

"What's wrong with them?" Kit asked, horrified. "Are they sick?"

The Matoran shook his head, "No, it's just their time, just as it will soon be mine."

"Their time?" asked Gali. "Time for what?"

Pushing her way through Onua and the Matoran, she knelt by the nearest villager. Hearing her gasp, Kit joined her—and gasped as well. The Av-Matoran's muscle and lung tissues were turning into metallic protodermis and the body frame was getting bigger and broader, looking less and less like a Matoran. In fact, the Matoran was starting to look like a-- "No way," Kit said, shaking her head and eyes closed. "This can't be real." She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. When that didn't produce the desired effect—seeing a regular Matoran—she shut her eyes again and said, "I'm dreaming," very fast over and over, banging her fists against her head.

Behind her, the Matoran, Tahu, and Onua watched, bemused. "Why is she doing that?" asked the Matoran.

"Let's just say your guess is as good as ours," Tahu answered; sometimes he believed that he and his team still had a lot to learn about humans.

On the fifth 'I'm dreaming' Kit stopped, partially to check and see if she'd woken up yet, partially on account of her head hurting. Unfortunately, the transforming Matoran was still there. "Th-This is impossible," she said, clearly shaken. "They're--"

"Bohrok," Gali whispered, as if she had just rediscovered her voice, and just as shaken as Kit. "By the Great Beings, they are turning into Bohrok!" As much as they didn't want to believe it, it was true. Before them, about a dozen Av-Matoran were transforming into the monstrous, insect-like Bohrok that the Toa Nuva once fought on the island of Mata Nui. They lacked the slug-like krana, though, that gave the machines guidance. "This is just so insane," Gali said, horrified. "It just _can't_ be."

"Does this mean that all of the Bohrok you guys fought were actually Matoran?" Kit asked.

"Maybe it's not so farfetched, if you think about it," Onua said. The Toa of Earth went into an explanation that, back at Metru Nui, he read about a theory that Bohrok were once bio-mechanical lifeforms that evolved into completely mechanical, artificial life.

'Isn't that what we just saw happen?' Kit wondered.

Their Matoran companion then mentioned that what they were seeing was the way of things, that it has been going on since before anyone but the Great Beings could remember. As Bohrok, the Av-Matoran served the same purpose as the Toa in a way, becoming like brothers-in-arms to them. The mention of brotherhood reminded Tahu of something. When the Toa imprisoned the Bahrag, the twin queens of the Bohrok, they asked them why they were opposing their 'brothers'. "We never suspected . . ." said the Fire Toa, feeling a heavy, guilty weight on his heart. Kit patted his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. Suddenly, the dozen new Bohrok vanished.

"Where'd they go?" the girl asked.

"To join the others and be fitted with the krana that will guide them the rest of their lives," replied the Matoran. "They now have a new role to play . . . as do you. And, yours requires this."

He pulled out a stone from his pouch. "A stone?" Kit asked, quizzically.

"Not just any stone; it's a keystone," the Matoran explained, and he handed to Tahu. "You'll need all six to enter the Codrex."

"Codrex?" asked the Fire Toa.

"The place of your beginning . . . and probable ending," the Matoran said as he pointed to a strange, spherical building that up the way they came. "Once inside, you will know what needs to be done."

Tahu and Kit would've asked him more questions, except for one thing—the Matoran's Bohrok transformation had begun. "No--" Kit cried, but was stopped by Onua's hand on her shoulder. The Earth Toa shook his head; there was nothing they could do to stop it. Once the transformation was complete, the new Bohrok vanished like the others, leaving three Toa and a human girl stunned with the memories of what they had just witnessed and learned. Suddenly Kit realized something and gasped, "We never learned his name."

"And now, he no longer has one," Tahu said, grimly.

'First Matoro, now all of these Matoran,' Kit thought to herself. 'More sacrifices in the name of the Great Spirit . . . but why?' She clenched her fist tighter and narrowed her eyes. 'Do you, Mata Nui, have a purpose in life so great, that it demands so much loss?' she thought as if communicating to the Great Spirit, himself. 'Or are the lives, the dreams, the feelings, of mere mortals beneath your notice?' Kit remembered hearing or reading somewhere that, sometimes, the universe demanded a price from its heroes, and she guessed the same went for universes similar to this one. 'But, why does the price have to be so high for so many?' she said to herself. 'And, what about the others who are left behind? Though they might still live, they still suffer.' At that moment, Kit decided that, more than anything at this point in time, she hated that saying.

Gali noticed a tear at the corner of the girl's eye and gazed at her sadly, 'Kit.'

"Let's go," said Tahu, pulling both girls out of their personal reveries, and the four of them exited the clearing.

Looking to Kit, Gali asked, "Aren't you going to rejoin the others above?"

"And, let you guys have all of the fun squashing some overgrown bugs? I don't think so, not yet, anyway," Kit sneered.

* * *

"Those Makuta left a trail even a blind Archives mole could follow," Onua whispered.

"Yeah," Kit agreed, "which begs the question: why are we walking into a beyond-obvious trap?"

"Because we don't have a choice," Tahu answered. "We still haven't found the Mask of Life, and there's the chance that the Makuta either already have it, or know where it is."

"Why is this whole thing starting to feel familiar?" asked Kit. "Oh yeah, I remember, just like back at the Pit; we have to find something that, in the wrong hands, could wipe-out this realm as we know it, and we have to practically walk right into the enemies hands to do it. I said it before, and I'll say it again—we never seem to get a break."

"We will if I have anything to say about it," said Tahu.

"Does that mean you have a plan when we find them?" whispered Gali.

"Remember the one we used when we cleaned out that Nui-Jaga nest on Mata Nui?"

Gali thought about it for a minute, then said, "Wait a second, we didn't have a plan then." She went on, saying that Tahu and Kopaka were having another one of their arguments. Tahu threw a fireball, which missed, setting a bush on fire. The smoke drove out the Nui-Jaga, which the Toa had to fight.

"'Guess I now know why I don't remember that," said Kit. "I hadn't arrived here yet."

"And, that's the plan," Tahu said.

"Then it's too bad Kopaka isn't here," said Onua. "You two haven't butted masks in days."

This caused Kit to burst out laughing so hard, she leaned on a tree to support herself. "Good one, Onua. Good one," she commented.

"Onua, Kit, you're not helping," Gali chided, then turned back to the Toa of Fire. "Tahu, please tell me you actually have an idea."

"Watch this," Tahu with a knowing smile. "It's a little trick I learned from Pohatu." Turning away from the others, the Fire Toa concentrated.

When Onua looked at where he was looking, all he saw was empty air. "What's he up to?" he wondered.

"Beats me," Kit replied with a shrug.

Then, Tahu relaxed. This time, it was Kit's turn to look. "Uh . . . nothing happened," she noted.

"Wait for it," Tahu replied.

A second later, a fireball materialized—right where Tahu was staring—and dropped to the ground where it started a small fire. Onua immediately went to work on stamping it out. "What the heck just happened?" asked Kit, stunned at what she saw.

Tahu attempted to explain, "As a Toa of Fire, I control flame, right?"

"Right," Gali confirmed.

"But, I can also control heat, which you can't have without flame," Tahu continued. "If I start the process of combustion in a spot, I can time when it will happen. Then, once it does, I can make the resulting fireball go where I need it to the same way I would with any flame."

"So, what you're saying is, by using this technique, you can actually plan a fireball for later?" Kit guessed.

"Exactly," Tahu verified, "just like how Pohatu can set a stone to crumbling inside without it actually collapsing until later."

"Cool," Kit commented with a mischievous look.

"Maybe it's a Nuva ability, I don't know," continued Tahu. "But, I do know we can use this to our advantage—and here's how we're going to do it." And, the group huddled together as Tahu explained his plan.

* * *

Author's Note: On the part where Kit's trying to convince herself she's dreaming at the Bohrok clearing, think Chihiro in 'Spirited Away'.


	3. A Plan

A little later, while the Toa were having fun using their newfound trick to get the Makuta to leave their campsite, Kit was trying to see if she could do it as well after Tahu explained it more to her. So far, though, she wasn't having any success. "Oh well," she shrugged. "Can't say I didn't try." Suddenly she felt a tremor under her feet and, losing her balance, fell to the ground. "Guess that's my cue," she said as she rubbed her rear. Careful to not encounter the Makuta, she found the Toa already searching the lair for the Mask of Life. "Any luck?" she asked.

"Nothing," Gali shook her head. "No mask."

"Or here," reported Tahu.

"I've got something," said Onua. "It's not a mask, but potentially useful nonetheless."

Tahu, Gali, and Kit gathered around the Toa of Earth to find him holding a keystone. "That makes three keystones that we've found," said Tahu.

"And, with a little luck, Kopaka and the others have found the other three, which makes all six," Kit pointed out.

"We'd better get out of here," said the Fire Toa. "The Makuta won't be fooled for long."

"Or at all," a soft, hissing voice said. It was Krika, flanked by Gorast and Bitil. "Did you really believe we would fall for that transparent ruse?" Krika asked. "We simply wanted you in one place so we could take care of all four of you at once."

All three Makuta fired their ghost blaster weapons, but Tahu managed to summon his shield just in time. As for Kit, upon urging from the Toa of Fire and seeing that Chirox wasn't among the Makuta, thus must've returned to the skies above and now Kopaka and the others would be outnumbered, she fired up her rockets and shot out of there so fast, the Makuta couldn't react in time to stop her.

* * *

Up in the sky, Tanma was trying to fend off attacks from former villagers with his light powers when he suddenly became aware of a sound that made his heart stop—his booster pack sputtering. Try as he might, the pack's power gave out and the Matoran began to fall. The Matoran he was fighting simply watched with evil smiles as he plunged through the clouds, screaming. Lewa, hearing and seeing him, shot off and caught the Matoran on his back. Tanma breathed a sigh of relief, "Thanks."

"No worry-problem," the Air Toa winked.

However, Tanma's eyes widened, "Actually, I'm afraid we do have a problem."

Lewa looked to where Tanma was pointing. A red Makuta had just launched a shadow attack. Lewa tried to dodge, but couldn't avoid the strikes for long and was eventually hit. Tanma was disconnected from his back upon impact. The Toa began to regain his bearings, but the Matoran was not having as much luck. Lewa, once he got his wits back, realized with horror that Tanma wasn't on his back anymore. Normally, he would've rushed in to save him, but the Matoran had already vanished into the mists below. Then suddenly, a form popped out of the mists, leaving a trail of cloud in its wake. It was Kit, with Tanma on her back. As girl and Matoran gave the Toa of Air a thumbs up, Lewa let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Meanwhile, as she flew, Kit suddenly became aware of another presence in her mind. She saw memories of Karda Nui that were not hers. "Hey, you not mind getting out of my head?" she asked the Matoran on her back.

"Sorry," Tanma apologized; then he pointed forward. "Look out ahead!"

Kit faced forward and saw Kirop was firing a shadow blast. "Hang on!" she cried and twirled out of the way. Tanma barely managed to not lose his grip. Kit then fired an energy ball, but Kirop dodged it and fired another shadow bolt. It hit one of Kit's rockets and the two went spiraling out of control. Thinking fast, Kit dislodged Tanma from her back and grabbed hold of him as she turned over so that her back was facing the ground before they hit bottom. The landing was rough—they now lay in a small crater—but otherwise, they were fine. As the two groaned from getting up, Kit heard a shout from above. Pohatu and Photok were falling, most likely from a bad hit. Though Photok was successful in getting his booster pack to break his fall, Pohatu, who was unconscious, slid toward the edge. Kit reacted on instinct alone as she jumped to her feet and ran toward him. Leaping forward, she grabbed hold of the Stone Toa's hand; she had him, but the question now was—who had her? The Toa's momentum was still so strong, it pulled Kit off of her feet, dragging her behind him. 'Oh crud!' she thought to herself as she noticed they were approaching the ledge. She was barely able to hold onto Tahu that time when he went over; how could she possibly hold onto Pohatu, whose armor was heavier than the rest of his teammates, and with a rocket out of commission? This all passed through her mind in less than a minute, and the Toa of Stone's body went over the edge. Kit was about to follow when she suddenly came to a halt. Looking behind her, she found Photok and Tanma clutching her ankles and Solek lying across her legs.

"Thanks, guys," she said.

"No problem," replied Solek.

"Now, do you not mind pulling him up? The two of you combined are not exactly lightweights, you know," said Tanma with effort in his voice.

'Pohatu's the one who's not a lightweight,' Kit said to herself with a smile, but, bracing her legs against the ground, she pulled the Stone Toa over the edge with all of the strength she had.

The Toa groaned painfully as she set him down, but otherwise didn't stir. Her eyes immediately noticed his shoulder was sparking badly.

"Antroz's work, that's for sure," said Photok.

"Is he going to be ok?" asked Kit.

Solek quickly examined the unconscious Toa and gave his diagnosis, "That shoulder's going to need emergency repair, but he'll be alright."

"Incoming!" cried Tanma.

The other three looked up just in time to see Chirox drop a canister that released five shadow leeches. The grotesque things snapped their jaws in anticipation for a meal as they fell. Kit, however, summoned and fired a shield that repelled the leeches, as well as Chirox.

"Ugh, gross," Kit remarked, disgusted, as she watched the Rahi get blown away.

"If you think that's bad, you should see them in a few days when they start dying," said Tanma.

However, the gang was not out of the woods yet. Kirop, who once again was dislodged from Chirox and a few shadow Matoran, launched a combined attack. Kit and the Av-Matoran, however, were too fast and managed to get out of the way. 'That was way too close,' Kit thought as she and Photok set Pohatu into some cover behind some rocks. The two turned to find their friends now engaged in battle against two of the shadow Matoran.

"C'mon," said Photok, and he charged in.

Kit, however, just stood there, unsure of what to do. These shadow Matoran were actually Av-Matoran who had their light drained; fighting, let alone hurting, them just didn't feel right. It felt to her like they were punishing them for something that wasn't their fault. Sure, she had so far struck at Chirox when he had a Matoran on his back, but she was careful not to actually hit the Matoran and it was just to disconnect the two. After all, if the Makuta didn't have a Matoran on their backs, they wouldn't be able to see.

"Hey," Photok called. "What are you waiting for? Fight back."

"But, they're Matoran," Kit protested. "I don't want to hurt them."

Photok gave the girl a hard look. "Look, kid, in case you didn't notice, though you might not be inclined to hurt them, they don't have a problem with hurting you. Believe me, I don't like this anymore than you do, having to fight those who were once my friends, but it's either this or wind up like them. Therefore, when it comes down to it, you don't have a choice." Before Kit could respond, another shadow Matoran tackled Photok to the ground.

"Photok!" Kit called and moved to help him. Or, she meant to, but found herself under attack by Kirop who jumped her from behind. Instantly, Kit tried to wrestle him off her shoulders, but she couldn't shake off the Matoran.

Her eyes somehow ended up spotting Photok and the others, also trying to fend off their opponents. One of them had Solek pinned to the ground right in the path of an approaching shadow leech. The white Av-Matoran struggled to get out of the Matoran's grasp, but couldn't, and Tanma nor Photok could help him. Photok's words echoed in her mind, and Kit knew he was right and what she had to do. Right now, these Matoran were the enemy. Reaching behind her, she firmly grabbed Kirop and commanded, "Get off!" as she threw him off her shoulders.

Solek, meanwhile, looked on in fear as the leech came closer. "No, no," he pleaded as he continued to try to get free, but his captor's grip was too strong.

The Matoran who held him sneered, enjoying the sight of his captive trying in vain to avoid the inevitable. "Hey, freakazoid," a voice said to him. He looked to find the human running toward him. "Laugh this off," Kit dared, and with a kick borne of soccer experience sent him flying. Then she fired an energy ball at the leech, incinerating it. Turning her attention to the remaining two, her hands glowed with power waiting to be released. "I suggest you two clear out, and I mean now," she warned. "I'm not in a very good mood at the moment." Nervously and slowly, the shadow Matoran backed away from Photok and Tanma. Kit, then gave them a shout and, in mere seconds, they took to the sky in a fright. Meanwhile, Kit laughed as she powered down her fists, "Gets 'em every time."

* * *

Half a day passed and things were just as tense as ever. After their last battle, the Toa Nuva, Av-Matoran, and Kit had a few more battles with the Brotherhood. The good news was, not only had they been successful at keeping them at bay, Kit also informed the Toa that Tahu and the others below had found three of the six keystones in the swamp. However, the bad news was that they still sustained some setbacks. There was, of course, Pohatu's shoulder and half a dozen of the Av-Matoran's number had been lost, possibly through deaths, but Kit suspected it was mostly to shadow leech corruption. She left out the part about the Bohrok's origin, fearing the emotional ramifications amid the villagers and the Toa, though mostly because she was still pretty shaken about the whole thing. She walked around the village when she spotted Lewa, who was standing watch, and decided to join him.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hi," the Air Toa replied.

The two noted the shadow Matoran that were flitting across the ceiling, though there was no sign of any Makuta, thankfully. "What do you suppose they're up to up there?" asked Kit, but the Air Toa shrugged his shoulders.

"They're just keeping an eye on us," Tanma said as he joined them. "They stay well out of range, just to remind us that they're there."

Seemingly casually, Lewa aimed with his air saber, tracked a Matoran's flight, who Kit recognized as Kirop, and sent off a gust of wind at him. The attack hit its mark and the trio watched as Kirop tried in vain to regain control and altitude. Kit winced a bit when he landed in a distant village on another stalactite, "Ouch."

"Out of range for you, not for me," Lewa grinned.

Tanma, though, wasn't impressed, "Great, there are only a hundred or so more where he came from." Kit had to admit Tanma had a point; they were seriously outnumbered here.

A little later, Kit had left Lewa and Tanma, wondering what to do next, when she spotted Kopaka. To her surprise, the Toa of Ice was carrying an unconscious Kirop. "What are you doing?" she asked quietly so as not to awaken the Matoran. "You're taking him as a prisoner?"

"Sort of," Kopaka answered with a slight smile. To this, Kit stopped in her tracks and stared at the Toa's back. Then, she realized she recognized that look in his eyes—he had a plan—and ran to catch up to him.

* * *

Kirop awoke to find himself in a cell and his bag that contained the keystone fragment he kept gone. He was about to make his escape when he heard voices. Putting his ear to the wall, he recognized them. Two were two of the Toa Nuva, but he didn't know which ones, and there was a female voice as well, which he figured must be the human's.

"Are you certain-sure this is going to work?" asked one of the Toa.

"Positive," answered the other. "With what we now know, we can destroy all of the shadow leeches and the Brotherhood's ability to create more. They will have corrupted their last Matoran of Light!"

"Then what are we long-waiting for? Let's do it!"

"Give us a few hours," said the human's voice. "Kopaka and I need to make sure the Matoran know what they have to do. Then, we make our move."

'They've discovered the location of Mutran's hive?' Kirop thought. 'And, what was that about a means to destroy the leeches? Mutran has to be warned.' In an instant, he used his shadow powers to blow a hole through the wall and was flying for Mutran's lair.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the shelter, Kit couldn't stop giggling. "I already can't wait to see the look on his face when he finds out he's been duped," she said in between laughs.

"Well, he fell for it," said Pohatu, smiling. "Now what?"

"We give him a minute's head start," said Kopaka as he checked his new weapon, a Midak Skyblaster. "With luck, he'll lead us right to the home of the shadow leeches."

Once the said minute had passed, Kit and the Toa prepared to leave, but were stopped by Tanma and his friends. "Not without us. This is our home. It's our people who have been corrupted. No one else is going to fight for them."

While Pohatu and Lewa glanced at Kopaka, Kit looked at him with an expression of understanding; personally, she felt that what they were about to do was too dangerous for Matoran, but, when one put it the way Tanma did, she had to admit to herself that the Matoran did have a right to be a part of this fight. The Toa of Ice sighed in defeat; he wanted to argue against the Matoran coming along, but knew there wasn't time. And so, with three Matoran riding on their backs, girl and Toa launched themselves in the air after the shadow Matoran. They had Kirop in their sights, making sure to mind their distance. "We're being track-followed," Kit heard Lewa whisper to Kopaka.

Peeking over her shoulder, she did indeed notice that they were being trailed by a Toa riding some kind of skyboard. "Who's he?" she asked.

"Another Makuta?" Pohatu suggested.

"I've never seen him before," Solek replied.

"So far, he's just following," Kopaka said. "If he makes a hostile move, then we'll deal with him. Right now, we need to worry about Kirop."

The Toa of Ice was, as usual, right; Kirop was starting to pull away. "If we don't speed up, we're going to lose him!" said Pohatu. The next thing the Toa of Stone and his Matoran passenger knew, they were zooming forward like they were shot from the barrel of a gun. Luckily, Pohatu managed to regain control and got back in formation with the others before Kirop even knew they were there.

"What the heck was that?!" exclaimed Kit in shock.

"No idea, but it sure was fun!" Photok said with a grin as he shook his head. "I just thought about us going faster, and zing!"

"Nothing like that ever happened to you before?" asked Pohatu.

"No."

"And, I didn't trigger the Mask of Speed. Well, whatever it was, next time warn me, ok?"

"Warn you—got it—is now a good time?"

Looking where the Matoran was pointing, the group found itself face-to-face with a good-sized flying Rahi of some sort. Before they could do anything, however, the mystery Toa shot past them to face the beast himself. As the Rahi approached the stranger, thinking it had found itself a willing free meal, the stranger raised a hand as if in command for the animal to stop. To the heroes' astonishment, the Rahi actually did stop. Then, a quiver ran down its body, its eyes suddenly widened, and it started to sound like it was having trouble breathing right. After that, it simply and limply plunged to the swamp far below. The Toa turned to face the others and just looked at them, as if silently asking to join them. She didn't know about her friends, but Kit couldn't help but widen her eyes; this Toa just stopped a multi-ton Rahi by simply holding up his hand. She wasn't yet sure whether to be impressed or scared about that.

After looking to the other Toa, Kopaka gestured for the new Toa to come with them, "Now we are eight."

As the troop flew on, Kit glanced at the newcomer and, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt, said, "Welcome to the team." The Toa silently looked at her and, though the clouds disrupted her view of his mask, nodded. "I'm Kit. What's your name?" asked the girl. The Toa, Toa Ignika, failed to respond; he had not yet grown accustomed to spoken language. Kit cocked eyebrow, "Bit of the silent type, huh? You and Kopaka ought to get along alright."

As the girl pressed forward, Toa Ignika observed her. He knew of Kit thanks to Matoro's memories. To be honest, he found himself quite fascinated by this human: a being that was so much like a Toa, yet so different at the same time. Then, he reflected on what she said a moment ago. 'It seems I'm off to a good start if she believes the Toa of Ice and I would make good friends,' he thought to himself.

Within moments, Kirop's destination was discovered. The Matoran fired a bolt of shadow energy that created a hole in the cavern's ceiling. "We're not going to make it," said Kit as she saw the hole was starting to close up after Kirop, almost as if it was healing itself.

"We won't have to," said Kopaka.

The group then took turns trying to bash their way in, but none were as effective as they would've liked. "Let us. Please," Solek said as the Ice Toa was about to prepare another ice blast, and Kopaka nodded. The three Av-Matoran fired light energy and the gateway to the hive flew in.

"Let's do this," Kit said, and they charged inside.

Though they didn't find any tanks of shadow leeches as they expected, they did find a Makuta waiting to 'greet' them. "Use the skyblasters," Kopaka commanded. "Find the shadow leeches and target them. Solek and I will handle this Makuta." In a flash, Pohatu, Photok, Lewa, Tanma, Kit, and the self-proclaimed Toa Ignika flew down the corridor to go leech hunting, leaving Mutran to Kopaka and Solek.


	4. The Hive and Keystone

They'd been flying down the dark corridor for minutes that felt like hours—and there was still no sign of any shadow leeches or how they were made. On top of that, they hadn't faced any opposition whatsoever since they broke in, not even from the Makuta from earlier. "I don't like this, you guys," Kit said uneasily. "This whole thing's easy—too easy." 'Not to mention that this place is a lot bigger than I figured it would be,' she added to herself.

"Maybe we missed something," Pohatu suggested.

But, Tanma insisted that the shadow leeches were there. "Why else would Kirop come here? Where else would've he gone?"

That was when Lewa pointed out to the group that the tunnel was coming to an end. "Let's ask our silent friend," proposed Pohatu. "Maybe he knows something."

Lewa and Kit looked behind where the stranger was following them. However, the sight that met them made the Air Toa gasp and Kit scream. Where the new Toa was a moment before, now stood a worm-like monster with a twenty-foot toothed, funnel-like maw. 'Disgusting,' Kit thought as she noticed the creature's pale white body was covered with a thin coat of slime. It wriggled and squirmed its way through the tunnel toward the group.

"Small Rahi beasts," Lewa muttered. "Whatever happened to the small Rahi beasts?"

"Maybe it doesn't mean any harm," Pohatu suggested.

Tanma, though, hit the creature with light bursts that made it roar in pain and anger.

"Scramble!" Kit cried.

"There's no room," Tanma shouted back. "That thing's bulk takes up the entire tunnel."

While the group continued to fight off what they thought was a menace, Toa Ignika looked on in confusion. Why did they suddenly turn around and attack him? After putting some serious thought into it, he decided that the only way to end this was to take back their gift of life and, just like with the giant flying Rahi, he reached out his hand at them. Moments later, they all began to falter and collapse to the ground, weakening with each passing heartbeat. 'No, not weakening. Dying!' Photok and Kit suddenly understood. The girl looked up at the creature, expecting to see it lunging toward her and the others.

Instead, it was just standing there. 'That's weird,' she thought. 'Why is it just standing there when it has a perfect opportunity to swallow us in one gulp?' A moment passed, and the creature just remained still. 'Maybe it's . . . like a . . . Komodo dragon,' she thought foggily as her vision and senses began to fade. 'It . . . attacks and . . . waits . . . for its . . . prey . . . to die . . . before it . . . eats it.' For a brief instant, the creature's form vanished, revealing the new mysterious Toa, but it happened so fast and her mind was so hazy, Kit didn't comprehend it. Then, she heard Pohatu's voice saying something about an illusion and attacking their new ally. Lewa's voice could be heard trying to apologize. Looking back up, it happened again and she could barely make out the figure of the strange Toa. What Pohatu said earlier suddenly snapped into place like pieces of a puzzle and everything made sense. The revelation caused Kit to gather up all of the remaining willpower she had left to fight the life-drain; she was not ready to die just yet, not before she and the others had their say to this Toa. "Please, stop," she called as loudly as she possibly could. "You're killing us." Above, Toa Ignika glanced down at the young human, hearing her cry. "We made a mistake," she continued. "We were tricked into seeing you as a monster. We're sorry." Looking into her eyes, Ignika saw not only the pleading, but the sincerity behind her words. For a moment, his power slackened.

Pohatu took advantage of the falter by guessing where the new Toa's location was and used his elemental power to make the ground at Ignika's feet erupt. The image of the monster disappeared, Ignika lost his concentration, and the Toa of Stone quickly followed up by pinning Toa Ignika to the wall. "Who are you? Why are you here?" demanded the Stone Toa. "And, don't try that little life-draining trick of yours again, or you're going to live between a rock and a hard place, get me, as I believe my little human friend says?"

"Wait a minute," said Kit, removing his arm. Her eyes were wide with recognition and shock. A second later, the Toa of Stone and Air saw why and joined her. "Your mask," said Kit. "I never got a good look at it until now, but I'd know it anywhere. You're . . . you're wearing the Mask of Life! How is that possible!? Who in this world are you?"

However, Ignika couldn't formulate an answer, even if he wanted to respond, for at that moment a high-pitched, keening wail reverberated throughout the tunnel. The sound was so shrill, it felt like their heads were about to split open; pressing their hands as hard against their ears as they could didn't help any. Tanma and Photok were the first to hit the ground, passing out from the pain, while Kit and the Toa managed to hold on a little longer before falling to their knees. The girl, unable to keep herself up any longer, collapsed into a fetal position. Using everything she had, she fought to remain conscious. She saw Ignika, Pohatu, and Lewa fighting to stay up on their knees and that they were looking at something. After some struggling, she saw what they saw—their attackers, three Makuta. Finally, she and the Toa of Air, Stone, and Life couldn't take it anymore and yielded to the pain and fell into the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

When Lewa awoke, he found himself and his brother Toa chained to a wall and the honored 'guests' of two of the Makuta, Mutran and Antroz. "The challenge of being a Makuta was choosing which power to use to eliminate your enemies," greeted the red Makuta, Antroz. "It gets so boring using the same ones all of the time. Variety is the spice of destruction, after all."

It was then that the Toa of Air noticed something that almost made his heart stop. 'Where's Kit?' Lewa yanked his chains to test them. Judging from their resilience, they were made of protosteel; even Pohatu would have a hard time pulling himself free with that kind of metal being the hardest substance this realm had ever known. A quick use of their elemental powers, of course, could let them loose.

However, there was a problem—the Makuta, no doubt, had to have anticipated such a move, which was proven correct when Antroz warned them not to even think of escaping. "You will notice your Matoran and human friends are conspicuous by their absence. They are with Vamprah and Chirox, having a . . . discussion. Or, at least the Matoran are. The girl, on the other hand, is being restrained and sedated to keep her from using her powers, waiting to be studied." Both Makuta noticed that the three Toa Nuvas' eyes flashed with anger, especially Lewa's; they had no doubt that not only were the Makuta's 'studies' going to be torturous for Kit, but they ultimately planned on experimenting on her, as well.

"If any of you, especially you," Kopaka indicated Mutran, "lay even a finger on that kid, I'll--"

"I'm afraid, at the moment, you're not in any position to do anything," Mutran interrupted with a sneer.

Knowing he was right, the Ice Toa resigned. 'But, we'll just see about that,' he thought to himself.

"Attempt to break free or attack us," Antroz continued, "and a telepathic flash will alert my two allies, who will immediately kill Photok, Solek, Tanma and—if need be—Kit. Is that understood?"

Lewa looked grimly at his friends; how were they going to get themselves and their friends out of this one?

* * *

Elsewhere in the hive, Kit was trying to open her eyes. It was so dark that, for a while, she couldn't figure out if she really was awake. 'W-Where am I? What's going on?' she thought, feeling like she'd woken from a deep sleep. Then, in a flash, it came back to her: Karda Nui, the infiltration of the shadow leech hive, the monster illusion that tricked her and the Toa into attacking their newest ally, the near mind-splitting cry, and the Makuta. Despite how tired she felt, she moved to sit up—only to find, to her surprise, that she couldn't. She gasped when she saw why. She was strapped down to a metal table that reminded her of the kind that was used for examinations.

"Ah, you're awake," said a voice she didn't like the sound of.

Turning to her left, she saw the figures of the same black Makuta she dealt with more times than she cared to count and the blue vampire-like one. Immediately she tried to break free, but she found herself unable to do anything more than a mere wiggle; her body felt sluggish and non-responsive. In desperation, she tried to summon an energy ball, but she was so tired, so weak, she could barely manage a glow. The Makuta, meanwhile, sneered at her fruitless efforts. Behind Vamprah and Chirox, the Matoran watched as their human friend tried in vain to free herself. It was a rather disheartening sight.

Unable to take it anymore, Solek moved to approach her—only to be stopped by Vamprah stepping in front of him. The Makuta gave the Matoran a look that seemed to say, 'Where do you think you're going?'

"I-I just want to see if she's ok," he said. "Please?"

The blue Makuta looked to the girl, back at the Matoran, and jerked his head toward her, giving Solek the go-ahead. Solek, however, only took a few steps before Chirox warned him not to try anything, or he and his friends would regret it. Locating a rock, he picked it up and used it as a stool. "Hey," he said.

Kit slowly turned to him and replied tiredly, "Hey," though she did manage a small smile.

Solek knew at once something wasn't right. "What did you do to her?" he asked turning to the Makuta.

"Relax," said Chirox, "we're just keeping her sedated, is all."

Solek wanted to say something, but decided against it for fear of what the Makuta would do to his friends or Kit if he made them mad. "Are you ok?" he asked the girl.

"I've been worse," she answered, trying to ease the Matoran's worry. "How about you and the others?"

"Fine, considering," said Solek.

Kit tried to keep herself and Solek talking to buy some time to regain some of her strength. However, after a few minutes a claw appeared on Solek's shoulder, causing the two to gasp out of surprise. "Time to go back with the others," Chirox commanded.

Kit instinctively tried in vain to break free as the Makuta led her friend away. "Leave them alone," she demanded, but Chirox and Vamprah ignored her as the black Makuta herded Solek back to Tanma and Photok.

"Now, where were we?" he pretended to think. "Oh yes, you were going to tell us how many more of you free Matoran there are in Karda Nui."

The three Av-Matoran remained silent; they had no intention of telling these tyrants anything. Shaking his head, Chirox came to the tiresome decision to give them a reason to cooperate. He stepped toward Photok—and was slammed hard against the wall along with Vamprah. Before Tanma and his friends could register what just happened, they and Kit were suddenly picked up by an orange blur and the next thing they knew, Toa Kopaka, Lewa, and Ignika stood before them fighting Antroz and Mutran. "Whatever we're doing, we better do it fast," said Pohatu. "The other Makuta are right behind me."

"Doom vipers in Ga-Metru," replied Kopaka.

The Toa of Stone smiled and shared the power of his Kanohi Mask with the others, allowing them to run faster than the eye could blink to the caves that housed the vats where the shadow leeches were created and bred. Once those were shattered and destroyed, Kopaka signaled it was time to retreat. Pohatu, however, not wanting to leave without so much as a parting shot, slowed his mask power of speed on himself and the others just a fraction of a second as they passed through the Makuta who were blocking their way. This caused the molecules in their bodies to solidify just enough to disrupt the Makuta's essence, causing them extreme pain. Then, the Toa and Matoran were in the open sky. "Let's bring it down," said the Toa of Ice, indicating the hive. The three Toa Nuva fired together at a cord of rock that kept the hive aloft.

However, to their surprise, the rock seemed to heal itself. "That's not normal stone," Pohatu observed. "It almost looks organic."

Toa Ignika got an idea and moved to the front of the group. Using his power, he made the rock age to the point where it became too weak and feeble to hold up the hive, sending it plunging toward the swamp below. The Makuta and shadow Matoran fled as it fell. Lewa, barely able to believe what he just witnessed, looked at Toa Ignika, wondering not only who this strange and powerful Toa was, but also what else he could be capable of. "What just happened?" he asked.

"We won!" Solek exulted.

"We survived," said Kopaka, shaking his head, "and we made them angry."

"Is that a good thing?" Photok asked.

Finally tearing his attention away from Toa Ignika, Lewa responded, "Mad-angry types get stupid. A stupid fighter defeat-beats himself."

"With a little help from us," Kit added with a smile. It was then that Toa Ignika noticed that Kit looked a little fatigued as she hung limply in Pohatu's arms. Coming closer, he peered at her and immediately didn't like what he saw and felt; the girl was weak, barely able to keep her head up.

"Let's go," said Kopaka; it was best not to be out in the open.

Minutes later, the group landed at their hideout. By that time, Kit was already strong enough to stand on her own and fire energy balls. Though they were not as powerful as they normally were, it was a definite sign that she was getting better, to Ignika's relief. "Now we need to get ready," said Kopaka. "There's no doubt in my mind that those Makuta are going to be launching another attack soon and they're going to be heading down our throats after how we destroyed their leech hive."

* * *

In one of the many villages that was claimed by corrupted Matoran, one of their number was keeping watch. Things had been quite quiet since the leech hive was destroyed. In fact, it seemed too quiet for him. What were the Toa and those weaklings planning now? The suspense was starting to kill him. Feeling something going on behind him he looked over his shoulder—and gasped in surprise when a huge figure jumped him before he could fight back.

* * *

"That's the last of them," said Photok as he approached Kit and the others after tying up a shadow Matoran with lightvines. Normally, these vines were used as a barrier to dissuade the Makuta and shadow Matoran from coming too close to the Av-Matoran's last strongholds. Now, they were effective binds; though seeing them seemingly in pain, Kit couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Afterall, they didn't ask to become what they were, beings of shadow, when they were once beings of light. But, as Kopaka said, it was only temporary.

"Now we wait?" she asked the Toa of Ice.

"Now we wait," the white Toa replied.

They didn't have to wait long. Soon after, they saw the Makuta and their shadow Matoran attacking the storage chamber that once functioned as their base. Kit couldn't help but snicker, "Can you imagine the looks on their masks when they realize we're not there?" Solek, Lewa, and Pohatu joined her, thinking of the Makuta's reactions.

"It's time we were elsewhere," Kopaka announced, seeing their enemies searching.

As one, the group took to the sky, using the cover of the mist to its advantage. "Why are we coming here, Kopaka?" Kit asked as they neared the caves.

"Solek gave me a piece of a keystone that's said to have crucial information about awakening the Great Spirit," the Ice Toa replied. "I took the second one from Kirop's possession; now we need to find a third that was taken from one of the villages during one of the Makuta's raids."

Once they were close enough, Kopaka used his scope to locate the keystone fragment. Finally, he found it and there was a niche in the stone that reached all the way down to it. However, the question was would anyone be able to get to it? Tanma reached in and stretched his arm as far as he could, but his fingers were just inches away from grabbing it. "Let me give it a try," said Kit, and she reached in her hand. Unfortunately, her arm guards made her arm too thick to go in and Pohatu couldn't apply his rock powers without possibly making the whole cliff detach. The problem did have an easy fix—all Kit had to do was get rid of the arm guards—but that required turning off her armor suit, thus leaving her no way to stay airborne, and the rock was too steep for any hand and foot holds. "I'm going to need a hand here," she said turning to the others. Toa Ignika immediately moved forward to volunteer. Kit nodded and, in ribbons of goldish-yellow, deactivated her suit. Ignika caught her just the instant she began to fall and held her up to the gash in the rock. Kit, once again, reached in her entire arm.

Her fingers just brushed the edge of the fragment when Photok said, "Fellas, we've got company."

It was the Makuta. They had figured out what they were up to.

"Can you reach it, Kit?" Pohatu asked.

"Just about," Kit grunted with effort as she tried again with desperation to grab the stone. Shifting her position, she managed to stretch her arm a little further—far enough to grab the artifact. "Got it!" she cried triumphantly as she held it up.

Once the girl handed him the stone fragment, Kopaka said, "Let's go," and they left to confront their oncoming adversaries. Pohatu started off by using the stalactites as missiles.

"Hey, down there," he called to the Makuta, "this place has really gone to Karzahni since we were here last."

"Thought it could a good cleaning up—starting with you," Kit finished as she started launching energy balls.

Antroz fired his heat vision at where he believed the Toa and girl's voices came from, but both Kopaka and Kit conjured their respective shields to deflect it. Lewa swooped down on Chirox and Kirop when they charged in. Meanwhile, Kit peppered the Makuta's forces with energy attacks. Suddenly, she heard the same wailing scream she heard in the tunnels earlier, though, thankfully, it wasn't directed at her. Covering her ears all the same, she determined the source to be Mutran, who was using the attack on Kopaka and Solek, who were helping some Matoran. Toa and Matoran started to plummet to the swamp far below. Acting fast, Kit jettisoned into a power-dive to help them, but not before leaving Mutran some parting shots of her own. "Hey, big and ugly," she called, succeeding in getting his attention. Before the Makuta could react, he found himself attacked from above by a barrage of crescent shapes that stung like a swarm of fireflyers. "This is for what you just did to Kopaka and Solek," Kit's voice said. When the stinging stopped, Mutran growled in anger and prepared to strike back—only to find Kit flipping over and her feet glowing with power. "And, this is for thinking you could use me as a new guinea pig," she informed him as she double-kicked him. The Makuta crashed into a rock face with such force that he left an imprint of his body in the stone.

As for Kit, going as fast as she could possibly push her rockets, she surged to catch up to Solek and Kopaka. To her surprise, she saw two figures holding up Solek. They were the two Av-Matoran the pair had saved earlier. "We've got him," one of them called to her, and she gave them a thumbs up as she continued after the Toa of Ice. To her, it felt like it was taking forever to reach him. Finally, she reached out her hands, grabbed his ankle, and strained to pull up, but the Ice Toa's weight and momentum also pulled her down. Kit summoned all of her strength to hold on to him and made her rockets work overtime to rise. After several feet, the rockets finally slowed them down to a hover. It was at this point that Kopaka began to wake up and the first thing he noticed was Kit looking like she was straining to hold on to his ankle with everything she had and more.

"Need a lift?" she asked with a smile and exertion in her voice.

That's when Kopaka saw something, "Above you!"

Kit looked to find Antroz coming down on them with energy crackling in his hand, and both of hers were full. Just when it looked it was all over for the two heroes, a stalactite came out of nowhere and glanced the Makuta, causing him to run off course. The next thing Kit knew, Pohatu, with Photok in tow, flew in a tight circle around Antroz, delivering several punches within a matter of seconds.

"Kit," said Kopaka's voice, "you can let go of my foot now."

"Oh, hehe, sorry," the girl replied, slightly embarrassed.

She released her hold and the two ascended to rejoin the battle. Once clear of one layer of mist, Kit was just in time to see another Makuta, no doubt a reinforcement, upper cut the new Toa with the Kanohi Ignika off his skyboard. Luckily, he managed to grab the edge of the board. Instinct just taking over, Kit rushed in to help, firing a powered up energy ball. The ball hit its mark, causing the Makuta, Icarax, to grunt in slight pain. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Kit coming at him. With a shrug, he fired a barrage of shadow energy. Kit, left with no time to do anything else, summoned a shield. Although it did protect her from the energy, the attack was powerful enough to shatter it and send her colliding to the edge of a stalactite that served as a pathway, stunning her. "I'll take care of you, little meddler, as soon as I take this Toa's mask," said Icarax, mostly to himself, and he reached down to claim the Toa of Life's Kanohi.

Toa Ignika, however, had other plans. This being, a Makuta, had dared to strike him a physical blow, harmed the young human who was only trying to help him, and was now attempting to claim the mask for himself. 'That will not be,' he thought to himself, and reached out with his power. Instantly, Ignika sensed that, unlike other beings he'd encountered over the millennia, Icarax had no trace of organic tissue. His body was nothing but power housed inside armor. Was this just the way he'd always been, or had the Makuta's anatomy once been something else? 'Let's find out,' Ignika decided, and Icarax, through the Mask of Life's power, was given a backward trip down the road of evolution—and, for Icarax, it was not a pleasant one. With muscles and tissue now replacing swirling masses of energy and the current armor the Makuta wore not being designed to hold them, the de-transformation was unlike anything Icarax ever felt. It had to be the first time anyone ever heard a Makuta scream in actual excruciating pain. Back where she fell, Kit couldn't help but stare in amazement at what the new Toa had done; the guy was just full of surprises, leaving her wondering what else he could do. Toa Ignika saw her watching him and winked. Before Kit could figure out how to respond, an explosion of darkness suddenly enveloped the entire area. Then, almost as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone and there was light again. Though the blackout only lasted a few minutes, it still rattled Kit a bit. Noticing the other Toa heading for Mutran, she and Ignika glanced at each other, nodded, and flew off to join them.

As for Mutran, he himself was getting ready to follow his cohorts when he discovered he was surrounded by the Toa and Kit, their skyblasters and single sureshot aimed right at him. "Where did the other Makuta go?" Kopaka demanded.

"Below," Mutran answered. "I hope you said good-bye to your friends before they traveled to the swamp . . . you won't be seeing them again."

The Makuta began to chuckle, which no doubt would've developed into a laugh if he weren't struck down by Kit. "The keystones," said the Toa of Ice, realizing what was happening. "I've read enough of the three we have to know the secret to reviving Mata Nui lies in the swamp."

"If the Makuta get ahold of it before we do, it'll take an army to take it from them," Kit added.

"And, we don't have an army," Pohatu pointed out. "We barely have a kolhii team."

"Then we quick-fly down there now, stop the Makuta, find the secret, wake the Great Spirit, and get home in time for disk-surfing," Lewa said.

"Just another day in the core of the universe, huh?" asked Pohatu, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Not quite," Kopaka corrected. "If we're not very careful, this might be the last day for all of us."

And with that, the entire group dove after its enemies to aid the rest of the team, hoping it was not too late to do anything.


	5. The Codrex

Though they were going as fast as they could and it was probably only a matter of minutes, it felt to Kit like it took forever before they caught sight of the Makuta. Tahu and the others were surrounded and Antroz was getting ready to discharge a shadow bolt.

"We're not going to make it," she said.

"We don't have to," said Kopaka, and he fired a stream of ice which enveloped around the Makuta's hand and attack. With nowhere else to go, Antroz's own shadow bolt jolted his systems. Kit, with a mischievous grin, let loose some energy balls at the green colored Makuta from earlier, sending it to the swamp water below. "I hate good-byes, personally," Kopaka as they neared the Makuta.

"Why, Kopaka, I never knew you cared so much," Kit said quietly.

The Toa of Ice simply smiled as he winked at her. "Us too," Pohatu joined in. "In fact, we hate 'em so much we couldn't let three Makuta take off without us."

Meanwhile, below them, Tahu smiled; the numbers were now even on both sides. "Well, are we going let those four show up late and have all of the fun?" he asked Gali and Onua. Both Earth and Water Toa admitted they were up for a rematch, bumped fists, and the three of them joined the rest of their team for the final battle.

Immediately, both groups of heroes and villains split up: Tahu with Vamprah; Lewa, Kopaka, and Onua against Bitil, Chirox, and Antroz; Gali and Krika; and Pohatu and Kit versus Gorast. To the girl's dismay, despite the fact their Makuta opponent was outnumbered, they hadn't been able to get through with her. Noticing something in her peripheral vision, she turned to look and called, "Pohatu!"

The Stone Toa looked to find Gali being carried away by a white mantis-like Makuta that Kit identified as Krika. "We can't get away from Gorast right now," he said.

"Then lets make ourselves available," Kit countered. The trio tried to dissuade the Makuta through a maelstrom of attacks: normal and charged up energy balls and beams, sureshots, crescent barrages, light spheres, boulders, and uprooted trees. But, Gorast plowed through, shrugged off, and survived them all. "Fall down already," Kit grumbled.

"Yeah, you're making us all frustrated," Pohatu popped in.

Gorast simply hissed amusedly and, with a powerful blow, sent the Toa of Stone and Av-Matoran flying—right at the Codrex. Kit could only watch in alarm as the two struck the protective energy shield and came flying right back at Gorast, who slammed them down to the mud with another blow. Seeing that they were barely moving, Kit landed beside them. Thankfully, they were hurting and going to be sore for probably the good part of a week or so, but they would be fine.

Hearing Gorast's laughing, she instantly spun around to face her foe. "Toa of Stone. Toa of Clay would seem more like it. Did you truly think you could stand against a warrior who has ground armies beneath her heel?"

Hearing Pohatu groaning as he painfully tried to rise, Kit, keeping her eyes on the Makuta, reached behind and offered her hand. "Well, it seemed like—ow!—a good idea at the time," the Stone Toa responded.

"And, don't forget, you still have me to deal with," said Kit with narrowed eyes.

"Don't worry, little one," said Gorast as she started floating toward the group. "You'll have your turn soon enough. As for you Toa Nuva, you will die here."

As Gorast continued on, saying how the Matoran would join the Brotherhood in darkness and something called the Plan would go forward and couldn't be stopped, Kit helped Pohatu to his feet and let him lean on her. Glancing down, she saw Photok was beginning to stir. "Wouldn't dream of it," said the Toa of Stone, and asked Gorast to inform them of this Plan. Gorast, though, had other ideas. She reached out with her hands and, seeing that her Kanohi mask was glowing, Pohatu shoved Kit away from him and out of the Makuta's reach. Shaking the stars out of her eyes, she was about to ask Pohatu why he pushed her away when she saw something seemed to be wrong with her friend. He was groaning and acting like he was going into convulsions. "Kit, get out of here!" he called when he saw her. "I can't control my power." Kit instantaneously shot into the air, dodging boulders that came flying from nowhere. When it was finally over, she looked back to find Pohatu and Photok gone and the tip of a large boulder barely sticking out of the mud in their place.

Hearing Gorast chuckle, Kit turned with a growl; Gorast was so going to hurt for that. The female Makuta eyed Kit with hungry, eager eyes. "You're mine now, human, as I believe Makuta Teridax said you were. I'm rather curious as to what your light must taste like."

"You want my light, freak?" Kit asked, charged, and, before Gorast could react, rammed hard into the Makuta's stomach, sending her crashing into a tree. "Well, you can just choke on it," Kit finished.

Angry now, Gorast charged, arms reaching out to grab the girl. Kit, however, moved up and, when Gorast was right underneath her, kicked her in the back. Gorast landed with a sucking thud into the mud. Getting up, she glared daggers at the girl. "You'll suffer for that, fleshling," she declared.

"Stick it in your eye, bug-face," Kit retorted.

The female Makuta roared in anger as she charged at the teenager. Kit, however, released a spirit burst, which hit Gorast square in the chest. Gorast slammed through a couple of trees that ended up burying her. Kit waited until after the dust settled and, seeing Gorast's prone form, went back to the buried rock pile. Unfortunately, there was no way she would be able to tend to it without possibly hurting or killing Pohatu and Photok. She was about to go seek the other Toa when she thought she heard rumbling. "Whoa," she gasped as she lifted off when the pile actually began to move. Her eyes widened in astonishment as the pile continued to rise up, up, up until it was completely out of the mudhole. Then, like an egg, it cracked in half, revealing Pohatu and Photok in the middle, who joined her higher up in the air. "I should've guessed that little trick was your doing," Kit said with her hands on her hips and a smile.

"Let's get to the Codrex," said Pohatu, and took off.

Halfway there, Tahu met up with them after dealing with Vamprah. When Pohatu asked him about seeing Gali, the Fire replied a negative, "What happened?"

"One of those bug Makuta, Krika I think you said his name was, took off with her," Kit answered.

After giving it a little thought, Tahu said, "Pohatu, you're the fastest. Go find her and bring her to the Codrex. Kit and I'll help the others and we'll meet you there."

"You got it," Pohatu said with a thumbs up before he left in the direction where he and Kit saw Krika taking Gali earlier.

"You ready?" Tahu asked, turning to the girl.

"Let's go kick some Makuta cans," was her response before zooming away, leaving Tahu to shake his head at her vernacular with a smile.

* * *

Soon after, the group managed to send the other Makuta into a tactical retreat. And, in perfect timing—Pohatu had returned not only with Gali, but with a completely different Toa Takanuva. While Tahu worked on putting the keystone pieces together and reading the inscriptions, Kit took the chance to ask her old friend a burning question, "What's with the new look?"

"I was attacked by a shadow leech at Metru Nui," he answered. Kit gave him a suspicious look and her body language took on a defensive air. "Don't worry, it was removed before it could finish the job," Takanuva assured.

Kit, however, didn't let down her guard—for a minute anyway. She snickered at his nervous expression, to which he smiled. Then, she did a double take and said, "I just noticed that you're now several inches taller than the others. How did that happen?" Takanuva looked down at himself, then stood beside Kopaka and measured himself to the Toa of Ice.

Kopaka noticed what he was doing. "Fascinating. It seems to be similar to how the Av-Matoran are taller than the average Matoran. Maybe it's this place, the energies of it, affecting something in their unique systems."

'That makes sense,' Kit thought to herself.

"It's just as the Matoran said," announced Tahu, who was done. "These inscriptions tell of how we can awaken the Great Spirit."

He passed it to the others to read. "Not that I doubt you guys," said Kit after she finished reading, "but are you sure you can do this?"

Gali nodded in confirmation, "I'll admit it does sound long and complicated, but it's not impossible. If the Makuta can be kept busy long enough, we can finally wake up Mata Nui and put an end to their goals of conquest."

"It's now just a matter of getting past the Makuta and into the Codrex," said Tahu. "Once in there, we can get started."

"Wait," called out a voice that sounded harsh and raspy, like it hadn't been used in ages. "You . . . must . . . wait."

Looking in the direction where the voice came from, the heroes found the source to be Toa Ignika.

"What is it?" asked Onua.

"What happened to your mask?" Kit also inquired. "It's now a silverish-black."

Ignika told them what Makuta Icarax told him up above about another purpose for which the Great Beings made him—if things got too out of control, a countdown to the end of existence would begin and he reflected that countdown with his mask changing colors. "Once I . . . the Mask of Life . . . become completely black . . . everything . . . ends." Pohatu was unconvinced about a Makuta telling the truth at first, though changed his mind when Kopaka asked him if he wanted be the one to risk everything by going by the assumption that Icarax was lying, and Gali worried that they didn't have enough time.

"On top of that, we have another problem," Takanuva spoke up, and told the group about the energy storm that would destroy everything and everyone in Karda Nui if Mata Nui was awakened.

"And, you were going to tell us this when?" asked Kit.

"I thought I just did," replied the Light Toa, grinning.

In a low voice, she said, "Remind me to pound you later."

As far as everybody was concerned, it had become a no-win situation, whether they won or lost. "Oh, those Great Beings and their crazy-whacky sense of humor," Lewa commented.

" 'Stupid-lousy's' more like it," Kit corrected.

"Well, crazy, lousy, or whatever, we've got a job to do," said Tahu. "So, let's get to it."

* * *

Soon after, Kit, the Toa Nuva, Takanuva, and Ignika found themselves at the Codrex, which was being guarded by all of the Makuta except Icarax and Mutran. They looked antsy, and rightfully so.

"Nine of us, six of them," Pohatu counted. "I like those odds."

"Me too," Kit chimed in.

Of course, the trick was managing to get inside. With surprise out of the question, they're best bet was to hit the Brotherhood fast and hard and hope that some of their number made it in. But then, after pointing out that the Makuta knew that they were coming, but not when, Kopaka came up with a plan. After the Ice Toa explained his strategy, everyone got into position.

"Ok, do you know what you have to do?" Kit asked Toa Ignika as she settled him into his position.

"Sorry, but this battle plan stuff is still very new to me," Ignika answered, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

"You stay hidden here and wait for Kopaka to give you the signal to combine your life powers with his own," Kit patiently explained. "Then, when he gives the word, head for the Codrex as fast as you can go."

Ignika nodded in understanding, and Kit left to get to her post; she didn't know about the others, but she was practically itching with anticipation. Almost immediately, everything happened so fast, but Kit saw it all and was ready. A thunderstorm suddenly appeared in what felt like the blink of an eye, accompanied with blinding flashes of light, all courtesy of Gali, Lewa, and Takanuva. She added some energy balls to the spectacle. The thunderstorm was followed by Tahu, Pohatu and Onua's combined attack, along with Kopaka and Ignika's. "Go!" she heard Kopaka shout above the roar of the storm. Not needing to be told twice, Kit zipped out from her hiding place and joined the others in Tahu's protective shield. However, when Gorast's beam of her disruption power hit it, bringing it down, they were forced to separate.

'Well, that worked like a charm,' Kit thought sarcastically as she, like the Toa, tried to find her own way into the Codrex while dodging heat-vision blasts, chain lightning, and direct sonic attacks.

Finally, the group saw their chance and moved in while the Makuta were still scattered and confused. "Come on!" Tahu called as he used the keystone to disable the shield around it, and everyone rocketed in, followed by the Toa of Fire. Inside the Codrex, the door that provided them entrance was now gone, replaced by a simple little window through which they could see the Makuta circling like vultures.

"Ha ha, you can't get in," Kit teased in a sing-song voice.

Onua, meanwhile, looked around his surroundings. "I know this place, but why?" he asked, sounding baffled. The remaining Toa Nuva gazed around too, feeling the same sense of déjà vu that they'd been in the Codrex before, but couldn't place when or why.

Lewa, who appeared the most perturbed, mentioned a vague memory of an argument. "And, then . . . it's all dark-blank."

"Maybe this is the answer," Kopaka said, indicating large empty slots—slots that seemed to signify the existence of Toa canisters.

"This is it?" asked Pohatu. "This is where we came from?"

"Well, it all makes sense, doesn't it?" Kit solicited. "You all mentioned from the beginning that you had the distinct feeling that you'd been to Karda Nui before, and, when you all arrived on Mata Nui, you arrived in Toa canisters. It seems, at some point in your past, you were here in the Codrex."

"Where we climbed into those canisters until we were needed," Kopaka finished.

As much as they wanted to revel in this new revelation and find out more, Tahu brought his friends back to the task at hand. Kit, though, couldn't help but steal one more visual sweep of all of the complex machinery. 'I'll bet, even if he made a field trip out of it, there's no way Nuparu would even scratch the surface at making sense of all of these contraptions,' she thought to herself. Suddenly, a harsh rumble could be heard throughout the chamber, and no doubt the entire structure. She found Onua standing in front of a bank of machines that was all lit up. "Onua, what did you do?" she called above the clamor.

"Nothing," plead the Toa of Earth, "I just ran my hand across a panel here."

At that very moment, the part of the floor that held the canister compartments fell from view, revealing an immense sublevel. Once everything settled down, Kit looked to Tahu after gazing down into the darkness and asked, "What do you think?"

"Well, we're not going to find out by just standing here, are we?" the Fire Toa shrugged and, with the others behind him, he flew down to explore.

What the group found was a chamber laid out in the design of a gigantic wheel with the 'spokes' leading in six different directions. Kit and Toa Ignika stayed put while the Toa Nuva inspected the place. After being so accustomed to the quiet of the chamber, Kit jumped and yelped at the sound of humming machinery. Ahead, some metal cocoons of sorts suddenly appeared beside Pohatu, Lewa, and Kopaka, and judging from the light coming from through the cracks, they were about to crack open like eggs. "What's happening now?" Kit asked, both to Ignika and out of reflex. Ignika shrugged, equally perplexed and mesmerized. From the cocoons 'hatched' three large and impressive looking air vehicles, all looking as brand new as if they were built only yesterday. Judging from the aerodynamic design, these transports were built for speed. "Wicked sweet," Kit commented as she took a closer look at them.

Lewa, admiring his red vehicle, smiled. "Ok, we may have been here before, but we never sight-saw these. I would've ever-remembered." Gali, noticing some writing carved beneath each of the aircrafts, read them off. The red one was the Axalara T9, the blue one the Jetrax T6, and the green one was called Rockoh T3.

"Why hide things like these here?" Onua wondered. "Were we, or are we, supposed to use them somehow?"

"And, check out the weapons," Kit marveled with regard. "Those are for fighting."

"That, or escape, in case everything goes really wrong," said Pohatu.

"If 'everything' goes really wrong, brother, there won't be anywhere to escape to," Kopaka laughed sharply.

'I can't wait to see the looks on those Makutas' masks when they get a load of these babies,' Kit thought to herself with a roguish smile. This, for a moment, led to the question: 'I wonder what they're up to out there.'

* * *

"They will never get in there in time, you know," Icarax said as he approached Krika, mentioning how the rest of their number were looking for weak spots in the force shield.

"In time for what?" asked the mantis-like Makuta.

"To stop them from waking up Mata Nui, of course," Icarax growled. He went on about how the Toa and their human companion were about to fix the only part of the Plan that made sense, and the Makuta were not doing a thing to stop it.

"And, what do you expect to do about it?" Krika irritatingly glared at the brute.

"I expect us to _act_!" snapped Icarax, pointing out that once the Toa woke up the Great Spirit there would be no turning back. "We have to strike while his body's still sleeping—we have to destroy the Codrex and the Toa and their fleshling pet with it!"

Krika, realizing that he'd been thinking the same thing, said, "Speak. I will listen."

Soon after, Krika found himself, upon suggestion from Icarax, forcing himself to try to phase through the field. Once he was halfway through, he became solid again, causing the field's energy to feed back on itself from not being able to eject something whose substance was partially inside, thus overloading the device that controlled it and creating an explosion. The field collapsed, exposing the Codrex.

* * *

Author's Note: I understand that some of you are wondering where my villian, Mirna, comes into all of this. Don't fret, she's coming.


	6. Out of Time and Options

Inside the Codrex, Kit and the Toa all felt a jolt. They all nervously looked to each other because they knew what that meant—the force shield had been destroyed. Now, the Makuta had a clean run to get inside. Kopaka, however, nodded toward the newly revealed vehicles; he had a plan to keep their enemies outside. A loud pound made Kit shriek in surprise. She could've sworn she'd actually jumped out of her skin. The pounding continued as the walls and roof buckled in. It was apparent that one or a few of the Makuta were trying to force their way in now that the shield was down. While Onua, Pohatu, and Kopaka summoned pillars of their respective elements to support the roof, Lewa used his power to force the walls back into shape by increasing the air pressure along the chamber's sides. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. They had to think of something else and fast. "Tahu, we need to take the vehicles and get of here," said Kopaka. "It's the only way. It might buy us enough time."

After gazing into the Ice Toa's eyes and seeing the determination that told him there was no talking his rival out of his plan, Tahu's response was, "I'll go, too."

Kopaka, however, refused, "If this doesn't work, you will need to think something else."

"Kopaka, you're trusting Tahu to come up with another plan?" Kit asked, quirking an eyebrow.

With a small smile, the Toa of Ice said, "You'd be surprised at how far we've all come along since you left." Turning to the rest, he asked, "Who wants to go for a ride?"

Lewa was, as expected, the first to step up to the plate. "If I gave up an opportunity-chance to fly-ride one of these beauties, Turaga Matau would never forgive me."

Pohatu also volunteered with the excuse that the Codrex was giving him the creeps. Lewa and Pohatu hopped onto their vehicles, rearing to go—once they figured out how to start them. Suddenly, before Kopaka could mount the last one, the Jetrax T6, a winged form descended from the upper level and launched it. "Hey, come back here with that, you dirty, overgrown bat-freak!" Kit called after Antroz, but he had already phased out through the ceiling. Without a word, for none was needed, Pohatu, Lewa, and Kopaka charged after the Makuta.

It was then that several cracking sounds reverberated in the chamber. The pillars of ice, earth, and stone were beginning to shatter. "I have to go out there, too," Takanuva said suddenly, as if he'd just snapped out of a trance.

Gali, however, claimed the remainder of the team needed him there, "Should the Makuta break in--"

"The Makuta need to pay for what they've done!" the Toa of Light raged.

To Kit's horror, he went on raving about the Makutas' crimes against the Matoran and how he was going to kill them. "Listen to yourself!" Tahu shouted, spinning the novice Toa to face him. "Lost in fury, steeped in violence."

"Yeah, you sound like a Makuta," Kit concluded the Fire Toa's statement.

Shuddering, Takanuva calmed down and explained that it was probably for everyone involved that he join the battle outside for fear that he lose control inside the Codrex. Also, he revealed that, though he was somehow made to forget, he learned he was truly an Av-Matoran all along, which was how, along with it being his destiny, he was able to become a Toa of Light. And, his people, those of his tribe, were out there and he had to get them out of Karda Nui before energy storm could occur.

"You'll never make it. The Makuta will destroy you before you're six steps from the Codrex," Gali protested.

"Oh no, they won't," the Light Toa smiled grimly as he held out his hands. While the right hand crackled with shadow energy, the left did the same with light. "Trust me, they've never seen anything like me before."

"Go get 'em, Taka," Kit encouraged with a thumb up. Takanuva returned the gesture and departed.

Now, came the fun part—Kit and the remaining Toa had to find a way to awaken Mata Nui, which, according to the keystones, wasn't that very difficult of a task.

"According to the stones, the mere presence of a Toa will send multiple pulses of energy through the lightstones, with each one stronger than the last," Tahu explained.

"I get it," Kit dawned. "The whole process is meant to act like a jolt to Mata Nui's system, to shock him awake."

"That's the theory."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to it."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"There are problems," Gali answered. "There's no telling what might happen to us in the middle of all that."

"Plus, sending one pulse after another takes time, which is something we have in very short supply," added Onua.

"Isn't there a faster way?" Kit asked.

"None we know of at the top of our heads," the Earth Toa shook his head. "And, I've been doing the math. Remember when Ignika told us we're all doomed when his mask goes from silver to black? At the rate it's changing, we won't make it in time."

Gali looked to Tahu, who wore a familiar expression. "Oh no," she said quietly.

Kit heard her, "What do mean 'oh no'?"

"I know that gleam in his narrowed eyes," the Toa of Water replied. "It usually means Tahu's about to suggest something incredibly dangerous and utterly insane."

"We need to do it all at once—one massive jolt," Tahu declared.

"That would definitely wake him up," Kit agreed.

"Or, kill him," Onua added.

"Not to mention impossible," said Gali. "We'll blow up the Codrex and, possibly, all of Karda Nui."

"If we use the lightstones, yes," Tahu confirmed. "But, what if we had another source? Something so incredible it could feed all the energy we need into this system, and do it all at once?"

"That would work," said Onua.

"But, where are we going to find something like that?" Kit asked.

The three Toa turned their heads to face elsewhere. Kit followed their gaze and her eyes landed on . . . Toa Ignika. "Come here, brother," Tahu coaxed him. "We need to have a little talk."

While the Toa of Fire went over his plan with Ignika, Kit's mind wandered to the events outside. What was happening? Were the boys doing ok? Was Takanuva still hanging on? Suddenly, she heard a clang and the sound of ragged gasps, like someone coughing for breath. She gasped herself when she discovered the source—Tahu, pinned to the wall by Toa Ignika, with his heartlight wildly flashing. "What happened?" she asked as she joined Gali and Onua in trying to get the two apart.

"When Tahu explained his plan that with the Mask of Life's power, which would enable us to accomplish what would normally take hours, we'd be able to deliver the energy in one massive jolt," Gali responded.

"However, when he mentioned the only way it would work is if Ignika gave up his body and go back to just being a mask . . . let's just say Ignika didn't take it very well," Onua concluded.

'There's an understatement,' thought Kit. 'He's killing him with an overdose of life power.' Despite their combined strength, the three couldn't seem to make Ignika budge and Tahu was starting to fade. "Stop it!" the teen cried. "Let go, you're killing him!" Suddenly, Ignika cried out in pain and let go, due to the Fire Toa increasing his armor's temperature 1,000 degrees. Gali and Onua kept hold of him.

"That's . . . the problem . . . with being alive," Tahu said as he panted for air. "You can feel pain. You can die, just like everyone in this universe is going to die if we don't awaken Mata Nui and bring back balance. We need you to do that."

Ignika slammed the Toa of Water and Earth into the walls and advanced on Tahu, intending to finish the job. The Fire Toa prepared to fight back with flames in his hands. However, Kit got in between them. "Ignika, stop," she commanded in the firm tone of a mother to a misbehaving child. "Stop and think. Why did you want to become a Toa? Why did you choose that form above all else, to become like Tahu and the others? There had to be a reason."

Frowning, Ignika searched his memory. Then, he remembered, "Matoro."

"That's right, Matoro," said Kit, her tone softening. "He died a hero."

"He sacrificed everything so a universe could live," Gali joined in. "If he inspired you to be a hero too, then can you do less than him?"

"Even for his sake and everyone else's? His memory?" added Kit.

"If Matoro were here in your place, what do you think his answer would be?" Gali finished.

For a long moment, silence prevailed as everyone waited and watched for signs of what Ignika's answer would be, for it would determine the fate of an entire universe and its people. Just then, something about Kit caught Ignika's interest. Her eyes were more watery than normal and seemed to be beginning to leak. Gently, he placed a finger under one, catching a drop, and took a closer look. At first, he wondered about the purpose of this 'eye water' the human was able to produce, then two words, tears and crying, came to his mind, as did memories of Kit doing this before. He sensed that the memories were Matoro's and they were the reason why he knew those words. In one memory, he learned that humans cried when they were overwhelmed with extreme emotions. Judging from the forlorn expression on her face, Ignika guessed that Kit was expressing sadness; she missed Matoro because he was gone. Now, with memories and the girl's feelings in mind, he knew what his answer was. Standing up straight, he looked at Tahu and said, "He would say . . . he would say yes. I will do what must be done. Then, I will be like Matoro. I will be a hero."

Nodding, Kit complimented, "That a boy."

Ignika smiled in return.

"Alright, let's get started then," said Tahu.

Before anything could begin, however, the group suddenly found themselves under attack by what appeared to be a living cloud. One minute, they were standing, the next, after the cloud passed through them, they found themselves on the floor, short of breath and gasping for air. They all instantly felt so cold, they could've sworn their lungs were nearly frozen. Toa Ignika, the only one not attacked, moved to tend to the others, when the cloud appeared in his path and materialized into a familiar female form. "Hello, handsome," she greeted.

"Mirna," Kit said quietly in between gasps.

Ignika peered at her for a moment, then something clicked in his memory. "I know you," he proclaimed. "You were at my cavern on Voya Nui."

"Aw, how sweet of you to remember me," Mirna replied with a smile.

The Toa brandished his Lifeblade and commanded, "Reverse what you have done to my friends."

"Friends, huh? Interesting," Mirna replied with nothing more than an inquisitive cocked eyebrow; she didn't flinch in the slightest at the sight of the sword. "Well, you might as well relax, pretty boy, your 'friends' will fully recover in a few minutes. In the meantime, you're coming with me."

"You're not destined to handle me, therefore you'll only doom yourself to whatever curse I choose for you if you dare touch me," Ignika warned.

Mirna, though, just sneered, "Then I guess it's a good thing I figured out a way to handle you until I come up with a better way, isn't it."

Ignika gave a confused look and he realized he felt a slight feeling of unease, a feeling he believed was called nervousness; whatever the woman had in mind, it couldn't be good. Before the Toa could react, Mirna reached out her arms, sending forth some cloud-like matter, which encircled him in a smoky colored ball. Inside, it was pitch black; Ignika couldn't see a thing. Spreading his hands out in front of him, he felt that the ball was solid; he was trapped. Mirna smiled at the sound of pounding within the ball. Apparently, the Toa of Life was trying to batter his way out, to no avail. Ignika thought about using his life powers to age Mirna to the point where she couldn't maintain the trap, only to realize he couldn't risk it. Being, at the moment, unable to see what was happening, he could accidentally aim at Kit or one of the Toa. And so, in a last ditch effort, he fired his Midak Skyblaster—and found himself on his back and still in the dark.

Outside, a flash of light was seen within the ball followed by a boom as something struck the wall of the sphere, but not even a crack formed. Mirna smiled, "Nice try, but you're not getting out of there unless I will it so." She turned to depart with her prize in tow, only to suddenly be rammed hard and sent flying right into a wall, the impact rattling her skull. Hand to her side—at least three ribs had to be broken now—she lifted her head and found Kit amazingly standing up, but barely. The girl looked like it was taking all of her will and strength to just stay on her feet. "You have got to be a real fool to think you can challenge me in your condition," Mirna threatened.

"I've been worse," Kit simply replied.

Mirna, fed up with this meddling Protector, fired her black energy bolts. Kit, not yet feeling strong enough to summon a shield, leaped to the side. However, the movement caused her to loose her balance and she fell to her knees. Mirna moved in to strike, but, thinking quickly, Kit unleashed her crescent barrage attack. Instinctively, Mirna used her arms to shield herself. When the onslaught ended, she slowly lowered her arms and inspected them. They were badly cut. Growling, Mirna glared at Kit, almost back to full strength. The two females locked eyes with other, and that was when Mirna noticed something besides defiance in Kit's eyes. Peering closer, she saw tiny specks of goldish-yellow starting to swirl in with the blue. Mirna gasped in horror; she'd heard of this ability. Kit was about to enter that state that enabled her to defeat Darcius. 'There's no way I can face her once she goes to complete full power,' she thought to herself. 'I've got to end this before she does.' However, Kit was a step ahead of her. Before Mirna could react to defend herself, Kit sent forth a spirit burst. The attack hit its mark, sending Mirna back into the wall. Using her rockets, the girl was on top of her in an instant and, before Mirna could recover her wits, sent her to the ground with a wicked right hook. Her concentration lost, the sphere prison vanished, releasing Toa Ignika. Mirna groaned in pain as she forced herself to her hands to hoist her up. Seeing that she was surrounded by Kit and the Toa, she knew she had no choice but to retreat. She narrowed her eyes at the teen and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Kit turned to the Toa, "You guys ok?"

"We are now," answered Tahu.

"How about you?" she asked Ignika.

"I'm unharmed, thanks to you," he said.

Kit shrugged her shoulders with a smile, "Well, now we're even."

Suddenly, the sound of shots and blasts rumbled on the dome of the Codrex. "Sounds like the guys could use a few extra hands," said Onua. "I'm going to see what's happening."

"I'm going with you," Kit claimed. "I wasn't done having my fun with those Makuta scum, anyway."

The Toa of Earth gave the girl an odd look, "Remind me to discuss your definition of 'fun' when this is over."

And, the two took off, leaving Tahu, Gali, and Ignika to finish what started a thousand years ago.


	7. Coming Storm

After exiting the dome, Onua and Kit separated to help out wherever they could. For a moment, Kit didn't know where to start. A shriek from an upward angle behind her made the decision for her. With no time to move away, the girl just instinctively leaned back into a horizontal position, allowing Gorast to pass over her. For a brief second, the Makuta had an expression of surprise on her mask—until Kit, giving her a smirk, power kicked her skyward, with a dash of energy beam. Righting herself, she spotted Vamprah and charged at him so fast, she was a blur. The blue Makuta was about to attack a distracted Pohatu when he sensed something behind him, but before he could determine what it was, he found himself slammed into with incredible force. Kit followed up her tackle with a double-handed sure shot. Vamprah cried out, pain searing the back of his right shoulder and feeling a small amount of his essence leaking—his armor had been damaged. He turned around, intending to face his attacker head on, but Gorast's voice stopped him. "Aid the others. This fleshling is mine." Vamprah departed to another area of the aerial battlefield, and the two feminine warriors squared off. Gorast rushed in, mask glowing and hands outstretched. Kit let out an instinctive gasp, remembering what happened to Pohatu, and just barely managed to dodge and counter with an energized punch. Gorast saw the technique coming and, being hit with the girl's power attacks more times than she bothered to count, she moved several yards back at the last minute. When she tried to close in again, Kit, catching on to her plan, let loose a volley of energy weapons to make her keep her distance. Realizing she was not going to get anywhere close to her target, Gorast settled for a different approach. She fired a beam of shadow energy. Kit, unfortunately, was caught completely off guard and was sent back hard into a tree. As she sat where she hit, stunned, Gorast loomed toward her, hand reaching out to touch her suit. By the time Kit regained her senses, Gorast's fingertips were just feet away from her. Just when she was certain it was over, the Makuta, with a cry of surprise and pain, was suddenly blasted away.

Looking to her right, Kit saw it was Tahu. "Perfect timing," she commented as he helped her up. Together, Toa and girl fought to drive off Gorast, but she proved to be very persistent and everyone else was busy with the other Makuta. Hundreds of bolts, blows, and other attacks were traded from both sides. During the fight, Kit noticed that due to being forced to move back as they fought, she and the others were unintentionally heading back toward the Codrex. The Makuta were herding them there like sheep. 'But, why?' she thought to herself; she thought the Makuta would want her and the Toa to keep _away_ from the Codrex. None of this was making sense. However, a shadow bolt from Gorast forced her to get her head back into the battle.

"The final moments have arrived," the Makuta declared. "Soon, it will be too late for anyone to change the course of events. The Plan will succeed and the world as you know it will be history."

Tahu, though, shot back at her that he'd heard those words from a Makuta already. "They were wrong then, too."

Kit voiced her agreement with the Toa of Fire. "By the way, where's your 'great' leader? Too much of a chicken to come and fight us himself?"

Though Gorast had no idea what a 'chicken' was, she could tell from the human's tone that it was meant as an insult and she hissed angrily. "You're a fool to dare to mock my leader, fleshling. But, don't worry—you will hear from him soon enough, and in words like thunder." She moved on to Tahu, who deflected her blow, but in the process, the Fire Toa left himself open to her sonic attack. His adaptive armor cracked from the shrill frequency of sound.

"You're the one who's the fool," Tahu growled. "No one is going to hear anything if we don't get out of here!"

"When Mata Nui awakens, this place will be consumed by an energy storm that will kill anyone and anything that's still here!" Kit joined him.

It was then that Krika, of all beings, showed up and confirmed to Gorast that Kit and Tahu were telling the truth, for he had overheard Kopaka and Takanuva talking up above. "Makuta Teridax has set us all up to be killed!" However, if he was thinking that his female comrade would listen to him, he was very badly mistaken. Completely forgetting about her current opponents, she turned and charged at Krika, hatred flaring in her eyes. With her mask power activated, she grabbed hold of his arm—and Krika couldn't stop her. He could already feel his intangibility power going out of control. "No! Don't you understand? You're all doomed!" Gorast's simple reply was that all she understood was that Krika was a traitor—and there was only one punishment for traitors. Kit couldn't help but gasp and gaze in horror at the sight of Krika screaming in unfathomable agony, becoming more and more ghost-like as his atoms lost their substance bit by bit until, with a last anguished cry, he completely vanished as if he was never there. Hearing Gorast speak with satisfaction that Krika was now less than a phantom, and soon not even that, Tahu took the chance to fire his blaster and created a clamp to pin Gorast's arms to her sides. He then used his elemental powers to heat the temperature around her up to the point where her armor started to soften. Finally, he let her go, but her punishment wasn't through yet. Before Gorast could recover, she found herself being pummeled by Kit's charged up fists, then blasted away by a double dose of energy beam. Now, not only was Gorast's armor slightly softened, it was also badly dented and cracked; it would take months to fix.

"I ought to just let Tahu melt you down into slag, if only to see how long your energy would survive with no robot or otherwise soulless, yet live, body to possess," Kit said, glaring at the female Makuta. "I figured you were demented, but I never thought you were insanely stupid. Krika, amazingly, went out of his way to save your miserable excuse for a life, and you killed him for it."

"Tahu! Kit!" a shout came from above. It was Kopaka on the Jetrax T6. "We need to get back to the Codrex." The Toa of Ice informed them that, after he was cured of the shadow leech corruption, Kirop said that the Makuta actually _wanted_ the Toa to awaken the Great Spirit. "Could this all be some kind of trick?" he asked.

The three turned at the sound of soft giggling that wasn't Kit's, but Gorast's. She didn't know about the two Toa, but, when the Makuta's sniggering turned into insane rings of glee, the sound chilled Kit from her bones to her core, her very spirit. It was a sensation like she never felt before and no words could ever describe how disconcerting it was. As she continued rejoicing, Gorast declared to the heroes that it was too late. "Can't you feel it? It has begun—the Great Spirit awakes!" No one, not even Kit, could, at that very moment, deny the truth of the female Makuta's words. Energy sizzled in the air and the shadows of the Makuta were being driven away from the land by a light that grew brighter every second. Out of the corner of their eyes, Kit and Tahu caught sight of the Av-Matoran heading westward towards, hopefully, safety.

"She's mad. They all are," said the Fire Toa.

"This is crazy," the girl piped in. "The Makuta have been trying to stop you guys, stop us, from awakening Mata Nui every step of the way, and now we're supposed to believe that they wanted you succeed the whole time?"

"I know," said Tahu. "They have a funny way of showing it."

When Kopaka asked if they could be missing something, Tahu swept a hand at the surrounding area. The energy storm that Takanuva told them about was heating up. They would have to worry about 'what-if's' later. "Yeah, like when we're out of the walls of this place," said Kit. After glancing at Gorast, still laughing her head off either in triumph or madness, Kopaka nodded and joined his brother Toa and human friend in locating and gathering their comrades.

Though the storm started out small, it rapidly gained strength and intensity with each passing precious moment. Initially, a painfully bright glow shone from below the swamp. Then, a vortex of energy appeared over the water. At first, it was small—half Kit's height—but it grew bigger and bigger as bolts of raw power went flying everywhere. The young Protector stared in amazement as it thrusted itself into the sky like a dagger and spread across the marsh. The power that crackled in the air was so awesome and off the scale she could feel it vibrating through her frame. It was one of those sights and sensations she would never soon forget. Forcing her eyes away from the sight, she turned to the Toa. "Where's Onua?" she asked, noticing the Earth Toa wasn't among the group.

"He went to get Gali from the Codrex," Pohatu replied.

In her peripheral vision, Kit noticed what looked like a winged figure heading far-too-near-for-her-comfort toward the vortex. 'Please don't tell me . . .' she thought to herself, hoping she was seeing things. But, to her disappointment, her eyes did not deceive her. Mutran, curious about this phenomenon, approached the outer edges of the storm that razed everything it touched, from water, to stalactites, to any unfortunate Rahi that couldn't escape fast enough. It was like a ravenous beast on a rampage—and nothing was safe from it. After privately fantasizing about the marvelous Rahi he could create with such a resource at his disposal and seeing a way of tapping into it, the Makuta began to reach out his hand. "Don't-" Kit tried to shout over the din of the energy tempest, but too late. From out of the storm's heart flashed a crimson bolt. The next thing the girl knew, she gasped in shock and horror as she witnessed Mutran's entire form being vaporized. Not even a cloud of dust or pile of ash was left of him. By now, as the storm accelerated and continued to grow in size and strength, all of the Makuta, even Gorast, grasped that something was wrong, very wrong. Krika was right—they had all been betrayed, and they knew by whom. After pushing the sight of Mutran's death to the back of her mind, Kit noticed that the other Makuta were trying escape. Bitil flew off, leaving his comrades to fend for themselves. Once she spotted Gorast, she gazed at the female Makuta, who just stood where she and Tahu left her, with a confused expression. Why wasn't she moving? 'C'mon bug-face, move,' she thought to herself, almost hoping that Gorast heard her through her telepathic powers. But, if she did, she gave no indication. "Gorast, hurry! Get out of here!" the girl called. As if suddenly sensing she was there, Gorast turned and faced the human whose light she once sought to drain. Kit gaped at the unexpected look of defeat in the Makuta's eyes. It wasn't one of hatred and anger, as she was expecting; it was something more like realization and loss. It was a sight she never in a million years would've guessed she would see on the mask of a Makuta, let alone one like Gorast. Instead of the last, desperate charge Kit was preparing for, Gorast simply turned her attention back to the storm, leaving the girl wondering why she looked so . . . crushed. Sure, she and the Toa had finally succeeded in accomplishing their goal and defeated the Brotherhood, but really.

By then, Onua finally arrived with Gali. "Everyone, grab hold of the vehicles and pray that they're fast enough to outdistance this storm," Tahu ordered. "If they can, they may be our only hope of getting out of here alive." Once everybody got a firm grip on each aircraft the Fire Toa gave the word to go. The Jetrax, Axalara, and Rockoh flew so fast, Kit and most of the others found themselves having to hold on for all that everything was worth. She swore she felt like her arm nearly got torn out of her shoulder socket from the sudden start.

'I wonder if this is what hyper-drive in those sci-fi movies feels like,' she thought as the storm passed by in a blur as they sped toward the western wall of Karda Nui.

She overheard Pohatu asking Tahu if they should help the Makuta. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that they were trying to flee the storm, but could tell that, unless they somehow acquired superspeed powers within the next few milliseconds, they were not going to make it. Tahu's reply was to leave them to the fate they chose and keep going. "You sure about that?" Kit asked curiously. "Jaller told me it's against the Toa Code to deliberately, in any way, shape, or form, kill an enemy."

"And, he's right," the Toa of Fire confirmed. "But unfortunately, Kit, there's nothing we can do to save them now. Trying to do so would only result in the loss of the team."

The girl nodded in understanding; Tahu was right, it couldn't be helped.

The three aircraft were now going past fast, something Kit never believed, until now, was even possible. If she thought that they couldn't possibly go any faster, she was dead wrong; they were still somehow gaining more speed. That soon turned out not to be such a good thing for her—her hands were beginning to slip. She grunted and groaned as she fought to hang on. Thankfully, Takanuva noticed and grasped her wrist. Just as they were nearing the same portal in the wall that the Av-Matoran escaped through, they got rocked off course by a wave of energy. The jarring motion caused Kit to loose her hold, but the Toa of Light's grip held fast. However, once they regained control, they saw they were now heading for a solid rock wall. Worse, there was no room to maneuver toward the tunnel. "Grip-tight, everybody!" Lewa shouted. Seeing the brown of the rock rushing to meet them, Kit ducked her head and shut her eyes tight out of instinct, waiting for the fatal crash. A few seconds passed, and no crash ever came. She peeked through one eye, but saw nothing.

She finally fully opened her eyes and blinked several times; she could barely see anything. "Am I dead?" she wondered aloud.

Takanuva chuckled next to her. "No, Kit, you're not dead. None of us are. The vehicles shimmered at the last minute, with us included, so we went through the wall unharmed. Now, we're in a tunnel, looking for a way out."

Kit breathed a sigh of relief; they made it. "Brothers, I see light up ahead," Gali pointed. Kopaka, Lewa, and Pohatu piloted the vehicles towards the pinprick of light, which got larger and brighter the closer they approached. When they got through, the light of twin suns was such a shock after being in the dark, they had to cover their eyes for a minute. They hovered in the air, looking down the tunnel they just came through. No words needed to be exchanged, they were thinking of the same thing—how their adventures had come to this very point in time. It was almost hard to believe. After all of these years, the Great Spirit, Mata Nui, was finally awake.

At one point, Kit turned around, spotted something, activated her scope, and asked, "Hey, Kopaka, is that what I think it is?" The Toa of Ice turned towards his back and followed the girl's pointed finger. Far off in the distance, there was a barely visible speck on the horizon.

Using his own lens, he took a closer look and immediately recognized a familiar sight. "Metru Nui," he confirmed. They hardly dared to believe their luck. They were within the territory of the City of Legends.

Before they could head there, however, Pohatu noticed something. "Hey, what's that?" The group turned to their left to see what the Stone Toa was talking about. Before them was a black and purple portal floating in mid-air with electric-like bolts crackling inside it.

"Where'd that portal come from?" asked Takanuva.

"I don't know," Onua replied.

Suddenly, a bolt zapped out from the center of the portal and connected with Kit's chest. The girl just let out the start of a warped scream of pain before she disappeared and the bolt retreated back into the portal. Before the Toa could comprehend what just occurred, the same thing happened to Tahu. One minute the Toa of Fire was there, the next he was gone. The portal instantly started to shrink until it vanished as if it was never there. "Kit-friend! Tahu-brother!" Lewa exclaimed. The Toa stayed where they were, dumbfounded and unable to believe what just transpired and how fast it did. They couldn't even react fast enough to help their friends.

"Where'd they go?" Pohatu asked, but no one had an answer.

Gali, with an expression of worry and disbelief on her mask, called out, "Come back." But, there was no answer to her plea but empty space.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere, there was someone else concerned about Kit and Tahu's whereabouts, too. In her own realm, Tehreisha's normally calm and peaceful façade was replaced with a troubled frown. During her meditation, she sensed that those two were no longer present in the Bionicle world. They were just . . . gone, without a trace. Try as she might, she couldn't sense them anywhere, and this disturbed her a great deal. It was never a good thing when a Protector went missing and she couldn't detect them. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do, being stuck where she was. So, the only thing she could think of was to expand her senses and keep them alert for any sign of the girl or Toa. '_Wherever you are, child, be strong_,' she thought, hoping that, perhaps somehow, Kit could hear her. '_May the power protect you_."


End file.
